


The Part Where Everything That Can Go Wrong Most Definitely Does

by Lenni51074



Series: To The Moon And Back [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Keith is terrible at flirting, Kissing, Lance could flirt with a fence post, Lance does not ship it at all, Life Bonds, Mostly Canon Compliant, Mutual Pining, Pining, Some angst because Voltron, The Red Lion ships it, You Say Vol and I Say Tron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 45,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23356180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenni51074/pseuds/Lenni51074
Summary: After the events of the team’s disastrous run-in with Zarkon, Keith tries his best to repair his blossoming friendship with you. He receives some unexpected assistance with his endeavours.As the Paladins continue to learn to work together as a team, they slowly begin to loosen Zarkon’s grip on power, as one by one they start to free planets from the tyranny of Galra rule, gaining valuable allies along the way.Keith learns more about his heritage, with potentially devastating consequences. But even as his past threatens to tear the team apart, it might just bring the two of you closer than ever.
Relationships: Allura (Voltron) & Reader, Coran (Voltron) & Reader, Hunk (Voltron) & Reader, Keith (Voltron)/Reader, Lance (Voltron) & Reader, Pidge (Voltron) & Reader, Shiro (Voltron) & Reader, Team Voltron & Reader
Series: To The Moon And Back [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654015
Comments: 49
Kudos: 115





	1. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Red Lion takes matters into its own paws as Keith tries to repair your relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mostly an original chapter, but the start takes place in the first few minutes of Series 2 Episode 3 “Shiro’s Escape”.

It had been a week since you had all been returned to the Castleship following the disastrous trip through the wormhole. Pidge had excitedly relayed to the team about her time stuck on a trash nebula before managing to contact the Castle, while Lance and Hunk had found themselves trapped on an ocean planet and nearly devoured by mermaids. Keith filled everyone in on what had happened on the desert planet, and how you had assisted Shiro with his wounds. The pride in his voice was evident when he’d told everyone of your efforts to deal with the team leader’s injuries.

You were still not speaking to Keith, making yourself scarce whenever possible if he was in the vicinity, and even Lance – who was usually oblivious to anything not directly involving himself - had begun to notice the tension between the two of you whenever you were in each other’s presence.

The team watched anxiously as Shiro slept fitfully in the healing pod, his eyes moving rapidly behind his closed lids. The only Paladin absent was yourself, having once again decided you would prefer to be wherever Keith was not.

“Is he okay?” Hunk asked, concern written all over his friendly face as he stared at the unconscious Black Paladin.

“Sometimes, the healing process can cause involuntary brain wave reactions,” Allura advised him.

“He looks like he’s having a bad dream,” Hunk fretted.

Keith glared at the Yellow Paladin. “He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards. What dream could be worse than that?”

“Hey, just because you and Y/N had a lover’s tiff, that doesn’t mean you have to take it out on us,” Hunk remarked in an injured tone of voice.

Lanced added, “Yeah, Keith. It’s not our fault your girlfriend is mad at you.”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Keith protested.

“No, she’s just the person who is life-bonded to you, whether you like it or not,” Pidge reminded him. “And you have somehow managed to annoy the quiznak out of her more than anybody else ever has.”

“Dude, I don’t know what you did to upset Y/N, but you need to fix it,” Lance told him seriously. “Because if you don’t, this team is going to fall apart.”

Keith stared after them as they left the Sleep Chamber, not knowing how to rectify things with you when he wasn’t even sure what he’d done wrong.

**************************************

You sat cross-legged in the pilot’s seat of the Red Lion, looking through the schematics and trying to figure out a way to fix her. Unfortunately, you weren’t as tech savvy as either Pidge or Hunk, so most of what you were looking at was pretty much complete gibberish to you. You wished once again that you had been allowed to follow your original dream of being a mechanic, so that you could actually be of some use right now. Still, you persisted. Red needed your help, and damned if you were going to walk away from her.

“Well, girl, I don’t know what Zarkon did to you, but I’ll figure it out. I promise.”

You were so focused on trying to make sense of what was on the screen in front of you that you didn’t hear the footsteps approaching. “Have you been here all night?”

With a startled yelp, you fell out of the chair. Blowing a lock of hair out of your eyes, you scowled at Keith. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong with Red so I can fix her."

“You know we have tech that can assist with that, right?” He held out a hand to help you up.

You ignored him, hoping that he would take the hint and leave. Regrettably, he was choosing to be particularly dense.

“Y/N, you haven’t slept properly since we got back. You’re going to burn yourself out if you keep working non-stop. Besides,” he said, one eyebrow raised. “I don’t really appreciate the whole being kept awake all night thing.”  
  
You scoffed. “Yes, because of course it’s all about how this affects _you.”_

He peered more closely at you. “Y/N, you look terrible. You need rest. You’re exhausted.”

“I’m fine,” you insisted as you walked away from him, before promptly walking into the cockpit door, which for some reason Keith had decided to close behind him. “OW!”

“Are you all right?” Keith cried as he rushed to your side.

“Oh, so _now_ you care about me?” you whined, holding your nose and wincing as you shook him off.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded.

“You didn’t give a damn about how I was feeling when you decided to rush headlong into fighting Zarkon,” you snarled. “And you sure as heck didn’t care about me when we crashed on that stupid desert planet after going through that dodgy wormhole.”

Keith stared at you, comprehension slowly sinking in as to what might be the cause of your anger.

You continued your rant. “You weren’t the least bit concerned about Allura being captured by the Galra. You didn’t care that we’d been separated from the other Paladins. You barely gave a thought to Red. You completely forgot that I was with you when we crashed! You didn’t ask if I was okay. You didn’t care about me at all! The only thing you cared about was whether Shiro was all right. You ran off after him without a second thought and left me to fend for myself!”

“He was injured! He could have died!” Keith protested.

“So was I!” you yelled. “Yet you never _once_ thought about me. Do you have any idea how much that hurts, Keith? Knowing that I didn’t even register on your radar even though I was standing right next to you? Sometimes I think you forget that you’re life-bonded to me and not Shiro!”

Keith reacted as if you had slapped him again.

“Keith, I understand how much Shiro means to you. I do.” You glared at him, unshed tears glittering in your eyes. “But this team consists of more than just you and Shiro. It might be nice if you remembered that occasionally.”

He continued to stare at you in silence. Heaving a huge sigh, you once again turned to leave. You were still too upset to trust yourself around him. “Seeing as you’re here now, I’ll let _you_ try to get Red back online. I’m going to see if Lance is free.”

Once again, you felt that automatic flash of resentment when you mentioned Lance’s name. Seriously, that was getting old. Keith obviously didn’t care about you, life-bond or not, so why did it bother him so much that you wanted to spend time with someone who did?

You tried to open the cockpit door. It was stuck. You jiggled it, hoping desperately to open it, but it refused to budge. Forgetting about your sore nose, you thunked your head on the door in frustration, instantly regretting it as pain shot through your skull. _“Quiznak!”_

“What’s wrong now?”

As your head was still against the door, your reply was muffled. “The door’s malfunctioning. We’re locked in here.”

**************************************

“Come on, you stupid cat! Open up!” Keith growled with aggravation as he tried yet again to open the cockpit door.

“You know, yelling at Red is not likely to get her to do what you want,” you muttered, your head resting on your knees as you sat with your back against the door.

Keith glanced down at you. “Well then, what do you suggest? Because none of the comms work, so we can’t even let the rest of the team know that we’re stuck in here.”  
  
“I assume that somebody will figure it out eventually,” you sighed.

Keith flopped down next to you, keeping a careful distance between you. He could still feel the animosity rolling off you, and he didn’t want to risk a punch in the face if he could possibly avoid it.

“Y/N, I…” Keith swallowed as the words stuck in his throat. “I’m… sorry. For putting you in danger, and for… well, for everything. Shiro’s been my only family for so long, I’ve kind of forgotten… I just…”

He shrugged, and took another breath. “I’ve never really had any… friends. For the past few years, ever since my dad died, it’s pretty much just been me and Shiro. I guess I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have other people to care about.”

Your head was still on your knees. “I don’t know what it’s going to take for you to realise that this team is your family, too.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” He reached out a hesitant hand, but dropped it before he could bring himself to touch you. “Y/N, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I don’t care about you. I guess I’m just not good with people.”

An indelicate snort came from you. “Keith, you have the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

His lips quirked up a fraction. “Yeah, Shiro keeps telling me that I’m not really a people person.”

“That is the understatement of the century.” You finally lifted your head, and Keith felt a stab of guilt when he noticed that your eyes were red and your face tear-stained. “It just hurt, knowing that you care more about Shiro than the rest of us put together.”

He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Shiro has always been there for me. He’s like a brother to me. Even when everyone else at the Garrison was against me, he always had my back. He always thought I was worth fighting for, even when everybody else told me I didn’t deserve to be there.”

“Yeah,” you said softly. “It’s kind of tough when everyone treats you like you’re not worth anything.”  
  
Keith looked at you incredulously. “What would _you_ know about that? You had everything handed to you. You were the Garrison princess; you had it easy.”

Another snort. “Keith, the fact that I was the ‘Garrison princess’, as you keep calling me, was actually to my detriment, not my benefit. I had to work three times as hard as everyone else to be taken even half as seriously.”

At his raised eyebrow, you rolled your eyes. “All right, Flyboy. You think _you_ had it tough? Imagine being told constantly by practically every other cadet that the only reason you were at the Garrison in the first place is because of who your parents are. That the only reason you were accepted as a cadet is because they sucked up to Admiral Sanda. That you didn’t deserve to be there, because you hadn’t actually earned it.”

Keith frowned. He’d heard a few people say something similar, but he’d always dismissed it as petty jealousy because you were achieving better results than them. He hadn’t realised it had been constant and widespread and completely unfounded.

You continued softly. “Everybody only pretended to like me because of who my parents were, but then ignored me once they realised that I wasn’t going to use my connections to help them get ahead. Lance was the only one who didn’t care who I was, as long as I was his friend. Even Griffin initially only talked to me because of who I was, not because he actually liked me.”

Tears of frustration filled your eyes. “Why do you think I worked so hard? Because I knew that in order to be taken seriously, I had to prove everyone wrong. Even my own parents didn’t really believe that I could do it. I actually wanted to be a mechanic, but they didn’t think that was a suitable occupation for the daughter of such highly decorated leaders. So they convinced me to study navigation instead.”

The bitterness in your voice made Keith wince. “My own parents didn’t care about me, or what I wanted to do with my life. They didn’t care.”

Keith groaned internally. No wonder you’d been so hurt at his apparent indifference to you. It had just made you feel like yet another person didn’t care about you. Placing a tentative arm around your shoulders, he felt a sense of relief when you didn’t refuse the contact. He took the opportunity to pull you a little closer to him. You rested your head on his shoulder, and he squeezed you gently.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

You sniffed. “Sometimes I wonder if they’ve even noticed that I’m gone.”

“I’m sure they have, and that they miss you.” Keith sighed. “I’m not sure what’s worse – having no parents at all, or having parents who don’t really seem to care about you.”

The two of you sat quietly, neither of you sure of what to say. Finally, Keith broke the silence. “You know, I never knew my mother. My dad never really talked about her much. I don’t even know if she’s alive or not.”

“Oh, Keith, I’m so sorry,” you replied. “That must be hard.”

He shrugged. “I think it hurt Dad to think about her. Whenever I asked, he’d get all sad and change the subject. But I remember once, I asked him if my mother loved me, and he told me she did. ‘To the moon and back,’ he said.”

He smiled at you. “So after that, Dad and I said that to each other instead of ‘I love you’.”

“Wow. That’s actually kind of cool,” you said. “I don’t remember my parents ever saying anything like that to me.”

Keith felt a flash of anger at your parents. How could they fail to tell you how much you meant to them? You deserved to be told every day just how amazing you were.

You sighed. “I just… I thought you and I were finally starting to get along, and then you go and act like I didn’t even exist, and I just… It was like being at the Garrison all over again.”

Keith took a deep breath before plunging ahead with the thoughts racing through his brain. “Y/N, I know it might not seem like it, but I’ve always admired and respected you. Even when we were at each other’s throats, I always appreciated your honesty. You don’t sugar coat anything just to make people feel better. You always speak your mind, and you stand up for what’s right, and you fight tooth and nail for what you believe in. You are braver than I ever knew, and stronger than you believe, and tougher than anybody at the Garrison ever gave you credit for. You are clever, and resourceful, and fiercely loyal to those you care about.”

Looking steadily at you, he continued. “I know that I haven’t been deserving of it up until now, but I promise you that I am going to do my best from now on to earn that loyalty. For you to be as devoted to me as you are to Lance, and Shiro, and everyone else on the team. Because you are worth a thousand… no, a _million_ … of the rest of the Garrison cadets put together. You are bright and honest and amazing, and I don’t know what this team would do without you.”

He blushed furiously, noting the stupefied expression on your face. He smiled shyly at you, hoping he had done enough to earn your forgiveness. “Do you think… maybe we could start over? As friends? I’d like… I’d really like to be friends with you.”

You stared at him. “You want to be friends with me?”  
  
“Well, we _are_ life-bonded,” he pointed out. “It might be kind of nice if we actually got along with each other.”

You looked at the hand that he held out, his expression hopeful, and you felt your resolve slowly crumbling. He sounded so sincere, and you found yourself desperately wanting to believe him. You hesitantly took his hand, and he squeezed yours gently.

“Hi, I’m Keith, an emotionally dysfunctional pilot with a blatant disregard for anybody in a position of authority. I don’t know how to play nice with others and I have absolutely no idea how to do feelings,” he grinned.

“Hey, I’m Y/N,” you replied. “I’m best friends with a loud-mouthed Cuban boy. I have a tendency to pick fights with people bigger than myself, and I honestly have no idea what the heck is going on most of the time but I like to pretend that I’ve really got my life together like an actual grown-up.”

The two of you stared at each other for a heartbeat before bursting into laughter. Once you’d calmed down, Keith again looked at you shyly. “So, does this mean I’m forgiven?”  
  
“I guess so,” you told him. “But if you _ever_ treat me like that again…”

“I know, I know. You’re going to throw me out of the airlock,” he sighed. He wrapped his arm around you again, and your life-bond hummed quietly when he pressed a soft kiss to your forehead.

Without warning, the cockpit door opened, causing the two of you to fall backwards onto the floor. Red’s systems immediately came back online, and you felt a smug sense of satisfaction emanating from the Lion.

“You sneaky feline!” you squeaked. “You locked us in here on purpose!”

The smugness increased.

Keith looked at you speculatively as he helped you up. “Hey, Y/N. Now that the systems are back up, did you want to take Red for a test flight?”  
  
“Sure. Let’s go, Flyboy,” you said, taking your customary position in the co-pilot’s chair.

He shook his head. “No. I meant, _you_ should fly her.”  
  
You blinked several times before speaking. “Me? You want _me_ to pilot her?”

“Sure. You’re bonded to her just as much as I am, and you were always pretty good in the flight simulators at the Garrison,” Keith told you.

“Do you really trust me to fly Red?” you asked again.

Keith nodded, pushing you into the pilot’s seat. “I trust you. To the moon and back.”

You felt your heart melt, even as a furious blush crept over your face. Curse that stupid flippity-haired emo, saying things like that. “All right, Flyboy. Buckle up.”

The Red Lion roared as she took off from the hangar, your heart and Keith’s soaring right along with her.


	2. If You Keep Your Enemies Close, Are They Still Your Enemies?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro remembers that he was rescued from Zarkon’s clutches by an unexpected ally, and tries to convince the rest of the team to trust his rescuer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter corresponds with Series 2 Episode 3 “Shiro’s Rescue”.

“I’m not finding any coordinates in here,” Pidge frowned, scanning through the information on the screen in front of her. She turned to Shiro. “Are you sure this wasn’t just a dream?”

“I’m positive. Someone helped me escape.” He looked down at his prosthetic arm, which was connected to Pidge’s laptop as she downloaded the data from it.  
  
“And he was Galra?” Allura’s voice was sceptical.

Shiro nodded. “Yes.”

“You know you cannot trust them,” Allura insisted.

“Your father must have trusted them once,” he reminded her. “Zarkon was the original Black Paladin, wasn’t he?”

The princess huffed. “That was a long time ago.”

Lance and the others looked stunned. “Wait, what?”

“Didn’t you see how he stole the Black Lion right out from Shiro?” Keith asked irritably. “Or that he could do all that cool stuff with his Bayard? _Shiro’s_ Bayard? You know, the _black_ one?”

Shiro kept his gaze on Allura. “Why didn’t you just tell us the truth about Zarkon?”

Allura couldn’t look at him. “I wanted to protect you from the dark history of the Paladins so that you would have a chance to bond with your Lions on your own. _You_ are the Black Paladin now, not Zarkon.”  
  
“Yeah, well, the Black Lion may have a different take on the matter,” your leader disagreed.

“Wait a second,” Pidge called out. “I think I see it now. Some repeating numbers in all this Galra code. Let me extract it.”

She examined the code and squeaked with excitement. She brought them up on the large screen in the hangar bay. “They _are_ coordinates! They lead here: the Thaldycon system,” she said, pointing to a distant star system.

“Then that’s where we’re headed,” Shiro decided.

“Shiro, are you sure you can trust this? I mean, after all the Galra have done to you? They… they took your arm.” Keith sounded doubtful of his mentor’s suggestion.

“It’s worth the risk,” Shiro told him. “Someone helped me escape. If we can locate some allies in our fight against Zarkon, especially ones from his own side, we might just find a way to take him down.”

“We can check the location, but I do not like this,” Princess Allura said. “The Galra are not to be trusted.”

None of you voiced your silent agreement of Allura’s declaration.

**************************************

The Castleship arrived in a system full of enormous clusters of crystals. Under different circumstances, you might have considered it beautiful. Now, though, you just felt incredibly nervous.

“Well, this is it,” Coran advised, looking up from the system. “No sign of any activity at all, living or otherwise.”

“Can we get in there to take a closer look?” Shiro asked him.

Coran shook his head. “I don’t want to bring the Castle any closer. Those xanthorium chunks contain highly unstable nitrate salts. Even bumping one of them can blow us straight to Wozblay.”  
  
Shiro looked at the screen with a frown. “Are you sure this is right?”

“These are the coordinates Number Six gave me,” Coran replied.

“Hey! My decryption is solid.” Pidge sounded outraged at the implication that she had made a mistake.

“There must be something we’re missing,” Shiro mused.

“We should get out of here,” Allura insisted. “We’ve checked it out, but now it’s time to move on.”

“No,” Shiro disagreed. “There must be something more to this. I can feel it. I think we should wait.”

**************************************

Coran stared at the screen in consternation as an alarm started blaring. “There’s an intruder in the Castle!”

“How could someone just sneak aboard the ship?” you asked in alarm.

“I knew coming here was a mistake!” Allura sounded anything but happy that she was right. She scanned the security footage for the whereabouts of the intruder. Pointing to the screen, she noted, “There he is. Level five.”

“Everyone, suit up,” Shiro instructed.

Once the team was in their Paladin outfits, you all went to confront the intruder, coming from different directions in the hope of heading them off.

“I got him,” Lance advised, spotting the stranger in the hallway he’d just entered.

“Keep eyes on him, Lance,” Shiro ordered. “We’re all headed toward you.”

“Hold it right there!” you heard Lance call out, as he fired his rifle at the intruder.

“Careful, he’s faster than an angry klanmüirl!” Coran sounded almost gleeful over the intercom. “But he can jump like a sprightly globinheffer!”

“Coran, you’re not helping!” Lance retorted.

“Somebody’s as mad as a wet chuper. Coming your way, Number Six!” the Altean told Pidge.

“I got him!” Pidge groaned as she lassoed the stranger with her Bayard, then yelled as he grabbed it and dragged her behind him as he ran through the halls of the Castle. “I don’t got him!”

“He’s dragging Pidge away!” Coran cheerfully advised.

“Come back here!” Pidge continued yelling.

“Huh?” Hunk’s startled voice sounded over the comms. He fired his cannon at the sound of approaching footsteps, only to be yelled at by an irritated Pidge, who’d nearly been hit in the head by the laser fire.

“Sorry!” Hunk apologised as she disappeared down the hall, still being dragged by the stranger.

“Oh, Hunk failed the team, guys,” Coran said.  
  
“Hey!”

“All right, it’s up to Keith and Y/N now.”  
  
“Copy that. I’m ready,” Keith said, summoning his katana.

“Me too,” you replied rather unconvincingly as you raced down the hallway behind Keith. He dodged out of the way of the intruder, who was still dragging Pidge behind him.

“Oh, this is exciting!” Coran sounded as if he were calling a football match. “He’s got a sword. Two young Paladins, one seemingly indestructible foe. Swing and a miss!”

Keith snarled in frustration as he chased after the stranger, who was extremely quick. He managed to evade Keith’s blade easily.

Coran’s commentary continued. “Oh, another swing and a miss! He can’t touch him! He’s too fast!”

“Hey!” you shouted, swinging at the stranger with your staff. He glanced over his shoulder in annoyance, and you felt extremely insignificant as he stared at you disdainfully. You were knocked aside as if you were nothing more than an annoying insect.

“Oh no! Poor Y/N has been tossed aside like an old sock!” Coran’s description left you feeling even more humiliated than your inability to halt the intruder.

Keith instantly took your place, snarling with rage as his instinct to protect you kicked in. He leaped at the stranger, determined to strike him down, but the intruder stopped Keith’s sword with a blade of his own. The Red Paladin’s eyes widened in surprise as he noted the symbol on the blade of the dagger that the stranger held.

Taking advantage of his hesitation, the intruder moved with astonishing speed, knocking Keith’s Bayard out of his hands and immediately turning toward you as you moved to attack him again. He threw you at Pidge, causing both of you to skid down the hallway in a tangled heap.

Keith once again launched himself at the stranger, who grabbed his arm and used the momentum to hurl him in the opposite direction, where he crashed into Lance and Hunk as they rounded the corner.

With incredible speed, the intruder spun around to swing his blade at Shiro, who had snuck up behind him and was ready to attack with his prosthetic hand. Before his blade hit your leader’s neck, however, the other man halted his downswing and stood stock still, looking down at Shiro.

Then, as the rest of you watched breathlessly, the stranger lowered his blade and removed his mask.

“Ulaz?” Shiro’s voice sounded uncertain as he stared at the Galra standing before him.

Princess Allura glared at the intruder as she pinned him against the wall with her hand. “Who are you?”

“Stop! It’s him!” Shiro positioned himself in front of the Galra, putting a halt to any further attacks. “This is the Galra who set me free.”  
  
“You’ve come.” The Galra sounded pleased.

**************************************

“I don’t think this is necessary,” Shiro said to Allura, trying to convince her to remove the restraints that she had placed on Ulaz’s wrists and ankles.

She glared at Shiro, then at Ulaz, who sat silently on one of the lounges in the common room. “I will not have some quiznakking Galra soldier on the bridge of my ship!”  
  
“If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already,” Ulaz assured her.

“Are your Galra threats supposed to win my trust?” the princess hissed.

“I’m not trying to win your trust. I’m trying to win a war. And because of Shiro,” Ulaz nodded at your leader, “We are closer than we’ve ever been. Our gamble on you paid off better than we could have ever imagined.”

“When you released me, you also mentioned that there were others working with you,” Shiro remembered.

Ulaz nodded. “Yes. We are called the Blade of Marmora.”

“Uh, others? Are they here?” Hunk asked nervously.

Lance looked disgusted. “Hunk, can you try not to act so scared around the chained-up prisoner? It makes us seem a little lame.”

“I am alone on this base,” Ulaz replied to Shiro’s query.

“What is this base you’re talking about?” Allura asked sceptically. “Shiro’s coordinates just led us to this wasteland.”  
  
“The base is hidden,” Ulaz informed her. “Now that I know it is Shiro that has come, you are welcome to our outpost. It lies dead ahead.”

You looked at him curiously. “Behind all the xanthorium clusters?”  
  
“No. Right in front of it, in a hidden pocket of space-time.”  
  
“Coran, are you hearing this?” Allura asked her advisor.

“I _am_ picking up some kind of anomaly on the screen,” Coran told her through the comms. “I suppose it _could_ be a cloaked base.”

“Just fly straight for the centre of the xanthorium cluster,” Ulaz instructed. “You will see.”  
  
Allura snorted. “You think you’re going to get me to destroy our ship just because you say so?”

“We came out here to find some answers,” Shiro reminded her. “Are we going to turn back now?”

“You know I trust you, Shiro, but this doesn’t feel right,” Keith said, his voice filled with doubt.

Lance nodded vigorously. “And you know I hate to agree with Keith, but it’s a big fat ditto for me.”

You turned to the Black Paladin, your face reflecting your concern. “Shiro, the boys are right. Maybe we should try to find out more before we rush into anything.”

“Galra _could_ have implanted fake memories of the escape in your head,” Pidge said slowly.

“Oh, come on, that would be so evil. Which, of course, they are,” Hunk said. “But they’d have to come up with some molecular level storage unit. Which his hand _does_ have. But, to be linked up to memory, it would need a direct pathway to his brain. Which… yeah…”

Shiro shook his head. “Ulaz freed me. Without him, we wouldn’t be here.”

“Fine,” Allura reluctantly agreed. “Slow and steady, Coran. Head for the xanthorium cluster.”

Coran briefly looked surprised, before nodding. “Yes, Princess. Beginning approach.”

You watched as the Castleship headed towards the cluster. Coran’s voice sounded strained. “Impact imminent in five, four, three, two… Well, that’s something.”

“What is it?” the princess demanded.

“Putting it up on the screens,” Coran said.

Bright light flashed on the screen in front of you as you saw the Castleship moving through what looked to be a hyperspace tunnel, the rainbow streaks flashing past and making you feel as though you were passing through an aurora. It was eerily beautiful.

Pidge seemed awestruck as you stared at the sight in front of you. “Amazing. They’re _folding space_.”

“It’s like a space taco,” Hunk said dreamily. “Or a space calzone. Or a space-time soup dumpling and we’re the soup. Hey, is there a cafeteria on this thing?”

Suddenly, the hidden base appeared in front of the Castleship.

“Welcome to the Blade of Marmora Communications Base Thaldycon,” Ulaz informed you all. “Now, if you’ll free me, I need to send a message to the leadership. They need to know I’ve made contact with Voltron.”

Allura looked at Shiro. “Go with him and keep an eye on him. I’m staying here.”  
  
“Oh! Can we go?” Hunk sounded like a kid about to visit Disneyland.

“I want to see how they make the space pocket!” Pidge looked more excited than you had ever seen her.

Lance went and stood next to Allura. “You guys go ahead. I’ll hang back and protect the princess.”

Allura rolled her eyes.

**************************************

Every Paladin, minus Lance, boarded the Red Lion, and Keith flew towards the base under Ulaz’s directions.

Ulaz spoke softly. “This is the gravity generator that creates the space-time fold that hides the station. It was created by a reclusive genius engineer named Slav. His technology allows the Blade of Marmora to remain hidden while we work to take down the Galra Empire. Zarkon would do anything to get his hands on this technology.”

Keith raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “There are Galra out there that aren’t loyal to Zarkon?”

Ulaz gave a brief nod. “We thought expanding the Galra Empire would bring stability. We learned too late, a tyrant doesn’t seek stability, only power.”

Once aboard the base, Ulaz took you to the command centre. “With our members working on the inside, planning coordinated attacks with Voltron, we may finally have a chance.”

“So, you have agents working within Zarkon’s ranks?” you asked.

“How do you think you got away from Zarkon in that last fight?” Ulaz looked at you as if you were particularly stupid. “Do you think those shields around Zarkon’s command centre went down on their own? We’ve got people risking their lives in this war, just like you.”  
  
“If you have people on the inside, can they tell me where my family is?” Pidge asked urgently. “They were taken the same time Shiro was.”  
  
“I knew others from Earth were captured,” Ulaz admitted. “I never saw them, but I have some records of Galra prisoners here. I can transmit them to your ship.”

Keith had been staring curiously at the knife attached to the back of the Galra soldier. “What’s that weapon you carry?”

Ulaz held it out briefly for Keith’s inspection, before sheathing it again. “It’s a ceremonial blade that each member of our order carries.”

“Hmm, nice,” Keith started. An alarm blared, causing him to forget what else he intended to say. “Huh?”

Ulaz cried out in alarm. “Oh, no! You were tracked!”

“What? Us?” Pidge cried.

“If Zarkon knows we’re here, it’s because _you_ ratted us out,” you snarled at the Galra. Keith nodded his agreement, his stance already in fight mode.

“It’s another one of Zarkon’s robot… beast… ro-beasts!” Hunk wailed, staring anxiously at the approaching vehicle. It appeared to be shaped like a giant robotic head. What was it with Zarkon and evil robots?

Shiro looked grim. “We have to get back to the ship.”  
  
“Shiro, wait,” Ulaz said, handing the Black Paladin a small data stick. “These are instructions on how to reach the Blade of Marmora headquarters. Before you go there, find out how Zarkon is tracking you. If you lead him there, our entire underground network, everything we’ve spent centuries building, will be lost.”

Shiro nodded, before leading all of you back to the Red Lion. He contacted the Castleship as you left the Blade of Marmora’s base.

“I knew he could not be trusted!” Allura crowed over the vid-screen.

“It wasn’t him,” Shiro insisted.

“How can you be sure?” she demanded.

“It doesn’t matter now,” Coran interrupted. “What should we do?”

“Why can’t we hide here in the space clam and wait for it to go away?” whined Hunk.

“Everyone get to your Lions, but don’t launch,” Shiro told you. “We’ll wait to see what it does. I don’t want to risk fighting it if we don’t have to.”

You all headed to the Lions and sat tensely, waiting to see if you had managed to escape detection.

“We should be safe as long as we’re hidden in the space pocket,” Pidge informed everyone.

“He’s drawing in the xanthorium clusters,” Coran announced as the robot began blasting the crystals.

“I think he knows we’re here,” Hunk said.

“Hold,” Shiro directed.

The Castleship was hit by a blast of cannon fire from the ro-beast.

“Direct hit! He definitely knows we’re here!” Coran shouted.

“Get the particle barrier up!” Allura ordered.

“He’s readying another attack!” Coran cried.

Instead of firing another laser at the Castle, though, the robot appeared to be activating a tractor beam instead.

“He’s pulling us in as well! Paladins, I think it’s time to launch!” Allura told you.

“Form Voltron!” ordered Shiro.

“We’re exposed!” Allura told him. “The space fold has been lowered!”  
  
“Well, there goes Ulaz,” moaned Coran, noticing the Galra fleeing the base.

Allura glared, her lovely face marred by the expression. “I knew we should never trust a Galra!”

“Let’s light this thing up! Fire lasers!” Shiro’s voice was tense. Voltron fired several blasts at the crystals as well as the robot, which appeared to absorb the impact. The robot turned and opened its mouth – or whatever that gaping hole was – and turned on the tractor beam again, sucking the xanthorium clusters towards itself.

“He’s pulling in more ammo!” you shrieked.

“Move, move, move! Lance, Hunk, give me full reverse boosters!” Shiro directed.

The boys moved to follow his orders, but before you could feel safe, the robot once again began sucking Voltron towards itself.

“This thing wants to eat us like we’re a space taco!” howled Hunk.

“Can’t get free!” Shiro’s voice sounded strained as he attempted to shake Voltron free of the robot’s grip.

“I’ll make him back off!” Keith gritted out through his teeth. He produced Red’s mouth blade and stabbed the robot, which released Voltron as it started to short-circuit.

“We’ve got to keep some distance between us and that ro-beast!” Shiro cried.

“How? Nothing we do is working!” you wailed as the robot yet again fired at Voltron as well as the crystal clusters.

“It’s trying to pull us in again,” Hunk said as Voltron was caught in the ro-beast’s tractor beam.

Lance’s voice came over the comms. “I’m burning thrusters at full capacity and it’s not making any difference!”

A sudden blast from the Castleship hit the ro-beast, causing it to lose its hold of Voltron as it tumbled through space.

“Is everyone all right?” Allura’s worried tones came through the helmet comms.

“Alive, yes,” Lance advised. “All right, no.”

Suddenly, the Castle started moving through the xanthorium clusters, causing several to explode as it brushed past them. The ro-beast had managed to stop its wild spinning and yet again caught the Castleship in its tractor beam.

“It’s going for the Castle!” Keith hissed, as he noticed the particle barrier being struck by the xanthorium clusters.

“We need some way to stop its tractor beam!” said Pidge.

“I’ve got an idea,” said Shiro. “Pidge, form shield! We can use the shield to block the beam!”

The Green Paladin activated Voltron’s shield, and jammed it into the robot’s mouth before Keith used Red to punch it away from the Castle.

“We stopped the beam. Now what?” Keith asked.

“Now, we go on the offensive,” Shiro ground out.

Pidge sounded excited as an idea came to her. “The xanthorium clusters! We can use them!”

Voltron pushed the robot towards a particularly large xanthorium cluster, which exploded when the beast collided with it. The robot was destroyed in the resulting fireball.

Or so you thought.

Just as you were beginning to think that you could head back to the Castle unscathed, Voltron was hit by the strongest laser beam you had ever encountered. The shield had little effect as Voltron was pushed back by the robot.

“The shield can’t handle this much power!” Pidge cried.  
  
“We might not be strong enough to beat this thing!” you cried with exasperation as Voltron was yet again sucked towards the beast.

A new voice interrupted. “Hang on!”

“Ulaz?” Shiro sounded as astonished as the rest of you.

“I’m going to take it down from the inside!” the Galra soldier told him as he flew towards the robot.

“Ulaz, no! Let us handle this!”

The Galra ignored Shiro’s protests. “Voltron is too valuable. The universe needs you.”

Without another word, Ulaz flew his ship into the mouth of the robot.

“Get ready!” Shiro gritted out, as the robot flew back towards Voltron, tractor beam charging up.

You watched, eyes wide with horror, as the robot began to implode.

“Ulaz opened up the space pocket from inside!” Pidge’s voice was filled with awe. “It’s folding in on itself!”

“He did it!” Hunk cried as the robot finally disappeared – taking Ulaz with it.

“Ulaz saved us,” Keith whispered.

“He’s gone,” Shiro said, his voice filled with sorrow.

Tears filled your eyes at the sacrifice the Galra had made in order to save Voltron. A virtual stranger had given up his life so that you could continue the fight against Zarkon. It wasn’t fair, but you knew that you had to honour Ulaz’s death by not giving up. You vowed that his death wouldn’t be in vain, and you knew that Shiro and the others felt the same.

**************************************

You and Keith approached Shiro, who was standing in front of the windows of the Castle bridge, staring out at the xanthorium clusters sadly.

“Sorry we doubted Ulaz, Shiro,” Keith told your leader. “He saved all our lives.”

“I still have so many questions,” Shiro muttered, as if to himself.

“Do you think Zarkon is really tracking us?” you asked, frightened that the Galra Emperor always managed to find you so easily.

“We cannot know for sure,” Allura said grimly as she entered the bridge. “Only Ulaz knew our whereabouts.”  
  
“You don’t really think Ulaz gave us up?” Shiro asked her incredulously. “After he sacrificed himself?”  
  
“Yeah! Maybe Zarkon found out about this place on his own. He’s probably been searching for the Blade of Marmora,” Keith pointed out angrily.

“It’s clear the loss of Ulaz has caused you great concern, but, regardless of how Zarkon located us, we cannot stay here any longer. It isn’t safe.” The Altean princess’s voice told you that she wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation.

“We should meet up with the rest of Ulaz’s group, finish what we started,” Keith urged.

Shiro sounded reluctant. “No. We’re not going to the headquarters until we figure out how Zarkon found us. We can’t risk losing the only allies we have in this war.”

**************************************

“Hey, Keith, Lance bet Pidge that he can eat his body weight in chocolate chip cookies faster than she can. I’m betting she’s going to win hands down. You want in?”

Keith looked up with a start, as you stared at him from the doorway of his bedroom.

“What have you got there?” You stared at the blade he held in his hands. It was the one that was always attached to his belt, but you’d never seen it unsheathed before. Your eyes widened as you recognised at the symbol on the blade. “Is that… why do you have a dagger that looks like the one Ulaz had?”

“I don’t know.” His expression grew determined. “But you can bet your life I’m going to find out.”


	3. It's Not Easy Being Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team ends up on a planet that integrates biology with technology, and Pidge discovers that sometimes nature is a better engineer than man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter based on Series 2, Episode 4: “Greening the Cube”

The team was floating outside the Castleship, attempting to repair the damage that had been inflicted when leaving the base which had housed Ulaz and his fellow members of the Blade of Marmora.

“Let’s hurry up with these repairs. Zarkon could be here at any moment,” Shiro urged.

Hunk grunted. “Okay, panel’s off. Now what?”

“Very simple,” Coran assured him. “Just loosen the blaxums on the somoflange.”

Hunk blinked as he stared at the Altean tech in front of him, unable to decipher the alien script. “Could you be more specific?”

“Sorry, Hunk,” Allura apologised. “He means the poklones on the agroclams.”

More blinking. “No, that doesn’t help.”

“Easy, Hunk, I got this,” Lance boasted, pressing several buttons. Suddenly, the equipment started beeping alarmingly and the particle barrier turned red. “Uh-oh. That can’t be good.”

“No, not the smalters, the poklones!” Allura scolded him.

“No, no! It’s the blaxums!” Coran contradicted.

“What are you talking about?” you and Keith asked simultaneously, even more confused than the team’s engineer.

Pidge pushed Hunk out of the way. Fiddling with a few parts, the youngest member of the team mended the particle barrier with a satisfied expression on her face. “There. Fixed.”

“Well done, Pidge!” Allura clapped her hands.

Pidge beamed. “The tech on this ship never ceases to amaze me. It’s so mathematically elegant. Its fit is a hundred times more frictionless than any exoskeleton we have on Earth. It’s beautiful.”

Lance snorted derisively. “It’s not a sunset, Pidge.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “A billion sunsets just happen every day. Some genius engineer actually _built_ this.”

“Kinda looks like a big, delicious curly fry,” Hunk drooled. He squawked as his helmet was hit by a strange projectile. “What the…?”

The team looked around in confusion as thousands of orbs suddenly surrounded the Castleship.

Shiro was instantly on alert, bringing up his shield. “All right, we’re prepared for this. Remember your rogue projectile cluster training from the Garrison. First, we need a temporary shelter...”

His instructions were cut off as he was hit from behind. “Wha…?”

Lance looked apologetically guilty. “Oh, sorry Shiro. I was trying to hit Keith.”

His expression turned from guilty to offended as he was hit square in the face with one of the asteroids. Keith grinned at him. “Like that?”

_‘Nice shot,’_ you congratulated him. You felt his ego inflate and immediately regretted the compliment, even as he winked at you.

“Yes! Squishy asteroid fight!” Hunk cried with delight.

“All right, guys,” Shiro said, trying to return things to normal. His attempt was short-lived as he was hit in the face by a projectile from Hunk. “Oh, oh! Okay, now it’s on!”

He immediately returned fire, aiming at the Yellow Paladin. Nothing like being hit in the face with a space snowball to turn your usually serious leader into an actual six-year-old.

“Oh, come on!” Lance was indignant that you appeared to be ganging up on him with Keith, as you laughed after hitting him in the chest with one of the ‘snowballs’.

_‘You’ve got a good arm.’_ Keith’s thought was tinged with surprise and a hint of pride.

_‘Garrison softball team, remember?’_ you reminded him, before grabbing Keith and shoving him in front of you so that he bore the brunt of Lance’s wayward throw.

Both boys stared at you for a heartbeat, before immediately joining forces to retaliate against your double betrayal. Hooting with laughter, you then sought refuge behind Hunk as he gleefully threw the squishy balls at everybody within range.

Pidge ignored your antics, instead focussing her attention on the squishy orbs. “I don’t think these are asteroids. Coran, I’m going to need a containment unit.”

“Just a tick,” the Altean replied, digging around for a suitable container.

“They appear to be some sort of hyper-resilient spore,” Allura speculated, examining the spore’s composition on the Castleship’s data scanners.

“This bioluminescent pulsing doesn’t seem natural,” Pidge noted as she placed a spore into the containment unit. “It appears programmed. I think it’s a code.”

“A code? From who?” Hunk asked in a bewildered tone.

“I don’t know. I mean, it makes no sense. You can’t program a spore.” Pidge sounded offended that she couldn’t understand how the spore appeared to be a computer.

Shiro smiled at the tiny Paladin. “If anyone can figure it out, it’s you, Pidge.”

“Before that, everyone needs to come in for decontamination,” Allura told everyone in her bossiest tone.

Everyone groaned in unison as the princess put an end to your fun.

**************************************

After being decontaminated to Allura’s satisfaction, you and Keith went to his quarters, where the two of you were trying – unsuccessfully - to find any information you could about the knife he had in his possession. Since you’d realised his knife was Galran, you had announced that you would help him find out more about it, and he couldn’t dissuade you from this.

“It’s _my_ knife. Why is this so important to you?” he huffed.

You rolled your eyes. “Because, Keith, we’re friends, remember? And friends help one another.”

Before he could reply, the door to his room opened. Keith hastily hid the blade under his pillow.

Coran poked his head into Keith’s bedroom. “Keith, did you happen to see a mouse come through here? He has something of mine.”

Keith quirked an eyebrow at you, which you returned with a shrug to confirm that you also had no idea what Coran was talking about. “Uh, n-no…”

Coran narrowed his eyes. “I’ll find you, Platt.”

Obviously the fat space mouse had done something to offend the Altean advisor.

“Wait, Coran!” Keith called out to the Altean, and both of you followed Coran as he headed down the hallway. “Do you think the Galra ever went to Earth?”

You fired your own questions at Coran. “Is that possible? They would have taken it over, right?”

“Oh, I think you’d know if the Galra were there,” Coran said dismissively.

“The Blue Lion was there,” Keith persisted. “Did a Galra pilot the Blue Lion, too?”

Suddenly, the door to Lance’s sleep quarters opened, and a very disgruntled Blue Paladin glared out, face covered in a mask and hair wrapped in a towel. You felt Keith’s confusion at Lance’s appearance, and had to smother your laughter. You had forgotten that your friend’s beauty regime was more extensive than most of the girls at the Garrison.

“Hey, why are you asking about my Lion? How many Lions do you need?”

“What? No, I-I was just…” Keith stammered.

“Don’t ‘What? No, I-I was just’ me! You’ve had your eye on the Blue Lion from day one!” Lance exclaimed, poking Keith in the chest a tad more aggressively than the situation actually warranted, as far as you were concerned.

“Well, yeah,” Keith replied, still dumbfounded. “It’s the first one we found.”

“Ah! Bah bah bah bah!” Lance made a ‘shushing’ motion with his hand. “The Blue Lion’s with me and we’re very happy together! _Very happy!”_ Lance slammed his bedroom door.

Keith turned his bewildered gaze to you. With a shrug, you deadpanned, “It’s a girl thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

Your amusement was apparent as Keith continued to stare at you, wondering what on Earth he had done to deserve to be stuck in space with all of you.

“Guys, check this out!” Pidge’s voice came over the intercom. Looking at each other, you headed towards the Green Lion’s hangar, with Lance scurrying to catch up.

**************************************

Pidge had hooked up the spore to her computer and was extracting the data from it in her attempts to decipher it.

“Oh, oh! I’ve seen this experiment,” Hunk clapped his hands together. “But, question: Why do we need to get electricity from a potato?”

“What? No, no. I was able to crack the ‘spores code’,” she chuckled. You rolled your eyes at her terrible pun. “I ran the bioluminescent pattern through a variety of code-breaking sequences, including this homemade virtual Turing machine. Of course, I had to make a few tweaks to the original design, because, obviously, there have been several advancements since he designed it. Although, you have to admit, Turing was a shining light in the world of science at an age when far too many were still…”

Keith interrupted Pidge’s fast-paced rambling. “Pidge. What does it say?”

“Oh, yeah,” Pidge got back on track. “ ‘Under attack. Galra. Help.’ And then, there are coordinates.”

“It’s a distress signal,” you said, wonder colouring your voice.

“Good work, Pidge,” Shiro beamed. “Get those coordinates into the Castleship’s navigation system.”

Coran punched the numbers into the computer. “The signal came from Olkarion, home to the Olkari, a proud class of engineers, builders of vast cities that could change shape at the whim of their creators.”

“They had a seemingly magical ability to manipulate solid metal,” Allura continued. She brought up images of Olkarion on the screen as she spoke. “With just a wave of their hands, they could build a computer inside a block of steel.”  
  
“Whoa,” Pidge whispered, sounding more impressed than you had ever heard her.

“An Olkari once gave me this!” Coran said proudly, whipping out what appeared to be a floating cube.

Lance tilted his head as he stared at it quizzically. “What is it?”

“Uh, hello? It’s a floating cube!” Coran laughed as he stated the obvious. “Oh, this guy. And watch! ‘My name is Coran and I’m a gorgeous man’.”

**[My name is Coran and I’m a gorgeous man]** the cube repeated.

Keith looked decidedly unimpressed. “Why would a society full of literal tech wizards use spores to send a distress signal?”

“Who cares?” Pidge cried. “When do we get to see that city?”

“Actually, Pidge, the distress signal isn’t coming from the city,” Allura said softly. “It’s coming from the forest.”  
  
“Oh.” Pidge’s shoulders slumped with disappointment.

**************************************

Pidge was still sulking as the Lions headed towards the surface of Olkarion. “Why doesn’t anyone ever send a distress signal from a cool place? I hate the outdoors. Nothing but sunburn and poison oak.”

“I like it out here,” Keith replied placidly. “It’s quiet.”

Naturally, because he said that, there was a loud thunk on the Red Lion’s exterior.

“What was that?” you asked with some alarm.

“Uh, are we being attacked?” Keith asked. The fact that the Lions were being pelted with arrows appeared to answer that question.

“I don’t know, but something’s dragging my Lion down to the surface,” Shiro responded.

“Yeah, something’s pulling Blue down, too,” Lance echoed.

As you landed on the planet’s surface, you stared out at the lush greenery surrounding the Lions. What you assumed to be the inhabitants of the planet – the Olkari – stood in front of the Lions, in was appeared to be organic mech-suits.

“Are those wooden mech-suits?” Hunk wondered.

“Are you kidding me?” Lance’s voice was shrill. “We got taken down by a bunch of tree people!”

“We come in peace!” Shiro announced as everyone descended from their Lions.

One of the Olkari looked surprised. “Could it be? Voltron?”

“We found your distress signal!” Pidge responded cheerfully as she stood on top of the Green Lion, holding aloft the spore she had deciphered.

“Praise Lubos!” the Olkari cheered.

**************************************

The Olkari spokesperson, Ryner, provided commentary as she led the team deeper into the forest. “When the Galra attacked, only a few of us escaped the cities. We were forced to flee in the forest.”

You stared in amazement at the tree-city that had been built amongst the towering timber of Olkarion. It was stunningly beautiful. Pidge’s eyes gleamed with appreciation.

“How long have you lived like this?” Shiro queried.

“Many deca-phoebs,” Ryner advised him. “But, as you can see, our people are resilient. We never stopped evolving. Instead, we adapted our skills to the environment.”

“Coran was right, Ryner. You really are the most incredible engineers in the universe. To be able to switch from working with precision machinery to a bunch of sticks!” Pidge sounded awestruck.

“Nature’s designs are superior to any that we could devise,” Ryner told her seriously.

Pidge snorted. “No offense, but I’ll take my computer over a tree any day.”

“You two can talk science later,” Shiro interrupted. “Let’s assemble Voltron and get rid of these Galra invaders.”

Ryner shook her head. “It’s not that simple, I’m afraid. The Galra have our leader, Lubos. If you attack, who knows what they’ll do to him?”

“Then we’ll just have to rescue him,” Shiro said simply.

**************************************

The team was following Ryner through the Olkari complex, staring with wide eyes at the scenes before them. The nature-based technologies were incredible. You had never seen anything like it before.

“Um, Ryner, where are we?” Keith asked, looking about the trees before him with a perplexed frown.

“This is the armory,” she informed him.

You raised your eyebrows sceptically, only to have them raised even further in astonishment as one of the Olkari picked what you assumed was a flower and placed it on their wrist, firing it like a blaster.

Pidge looked as if she was about to faint from ecstasy.

Ryner placed her hand on the trunk of one of the enormous trees, and suddenly one of the wooden mech-warriors dropped from the branches above. You looked up, noting that they appeared to be hanging from the trees like large fruit.

“Cool!” Lance cried.

Keith gazed covetously at the mech-warrior. “Uh, can I get one of those?”

“Of course. You can each have one,” Ryner proclaimed generously, handing a wooden circlet to each member of the team. “Now, the key to operating it is understanding that the nanocellulose responds to the electrical impulses from the neural pathways connected through this.”

“Do what now?” Lance gave the Olkari woman a perplexed frown as he placed the circlet on his head.

“She means that you can make it work with your brain,” you clarified for him.

His eyes widened with delight. “Oh, that is _so cool!”_

Keith snorted. _‘He couldn’t generate enough brain power to light a match.’_

_‘Oh, stop it. Lance is brave and loyal, which is more important than being smart.’_ You glared at Keith, and he immediately looked contrite, although you felt that now-familiar spark of jealousy whenever you praised Lance.

Hunk licked his circlet, which he instantly regretted. “Mm. Mm! Maketh my tongue itchy,” he lisped with a sheepish grin.

After placing your own circlet on your head, you placed one hand on the trunk of the tree you were standing near, as Ryner had shown you. You felt a tingling through your skull, but couldn’t quite figure out how to make the Olkari tech work.

Keith wore a disgruntled expression, indicating that he also couldn’t get the nature-based tech to work for him.

“That’s your interface?” Pidge queried, her eyes wide as she placed her own circlet on her head.

“Of course. All commands need to come as binary coded messages.”

“So, like this.” Pidge closed, and you stared at her with open-mouthed admiration as she copied Ryner’s demonstration. The tree lit up at her touch, and one of the mech-warriors dropped before her. She eagerly climbed inside, looking even tinier than usual as she peeked out from the large machine.

“Yes! Excellent!” Ryner congratulated her.

Lance shook his head forlornly, his hand firmly pressed against the trunk of the tree. “I think mine is just a tree.”

“You must have a deep connection with nature,” Ryner said admiringly to the Green Paladin.

Pidge shrugged. “Not really. My allergies and pale skin don’t mix with outdoor living.”

“Pidge is our resident tech expert,” Shiro proudly informed the Olkari.

Ryner nodded with understanding. “Well, that explains it. Like the Olkari, you understand that, at the deepest level, trees, metal, you, me – we’re all made up of the same cosmic dust, all arranged by the laws of mathematics.”  
  
Pidge made a face of disgust. “Does this mean I should start gardening?”

“It means you’re going to need to give your friends a ride,” Ryner replied, climbing into her own mech warrior. “This way! To the edge of the forest! To save our king!”

**************************************

Ryner led the team to the area where the Olkari king was being held captive by the Galra. You looked down over the Olkari structures, the Galra sentries guarding the buildings. Ryner brought up visuals of the floor plans on the mech-warriors screens, pointing out one of the taller structures.

“Their headquarters are impenetrable from the ground, but there is one way in – a small opening in the roof. It goes all the way down to an open courtyard.”

Keith studied the floor plan, a look of consternation on his face. “That’s quite a drop.”

“But there you will have total access to the building,” Ryner told him. “The hard part will be getting onto the roof undetected.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Shiro told her confidently.

Hunk pointed towards an enormous black cube in the centre of the courtyard. “Hey, hey, what’s that? Is that part of the building?”

“My Lubos! It can’t be!” Ryner cried with disbelief.

“Hey! That looks like the cube Coran gave me!” Pidge exclaimed, holding up the smaller cube proudly.

“I haven’t seen one of those in many deca-phoebs,” Ryner said softly. “We used to play with them as children. But this… only King Lubos could have designed one that size.”

“Why would he do that?” you asked, your head tilted to the side as you inspected the large structure.

Ryner replied, “They must have forced him to reveal his designs and reconstruct it as a weapon. From the looks of it, I’d say it’s almost finished.”

“Okay, we need to act fast,” Shiro decided. “Everyone, back to base. I have a plan. First, we’ll need to get to the top of that tower. Since the Green Lion has stealth capabilities, Pidge, you’re the drop ship. You’ll take us all to the roof, then drop back to a safe position. After the drop, we’ll use a sensor to scan the building for any Olkari biorhythms.”

Everyone nodded their agreement, and then headed towards the Green Lion to implement Shiro’s plan.

**************************************

As you headed inside the structure, you heard muffled sobs, and a sad voice crying out. “Betrayal! She loves you!”

Stepping inside what you assumed was the throne room, you saw a large – well, _fat_ , to put it bluntly – Olkari sitting in a chair, gaze firmly fixed on the large screen in front of him. He appeared to be watching some sort of alien soap opera.

“King Lubos?” Shiro called softly.

The fat Olkari turned his disinterested gaze upon all of you. “Yes? Who are you? The jesters I requested?”

“Um, we’re here to, like, rescue you?” Lance told him, his tone incredulous.

“Hmm…” The King seemed less than pleased at your presence. He pressed the arm of his chair, summoning several Galra sentries.

“You could have just said ‘No, thanks’,” Hunk muttered.

To your chagrin, a Galra Commander entered the chamber. “Looks like someone came to rescue you, Lubos,” the Galra said sardonically.

Shiro glared at the monarch. “You turned your back on your people to save your own skin?”

King Lubos shook his head. “I’m doing this _for_ my people! They wanted to fight the Galra, but they are too powerful! The Galra could destroy us!”

“So you helped enslave your people to build some super weapon?” you asked with disgust. Keith was glad that he wasn’t the recipient of the withering glare you were directing at the Olkari King. He was sure it would have disintegrated him on the spot.

“Don’t make _me_ the bad guy!” Lubos cried, pointing towards the Galra. “He forced me to do it!”

Lance snorted with derision. “Did he force-feed you, too?”

“Uh…”

“You’re no king,” Keith snarled.

Suddenly, the king’s servant threw him towards Keith, who immediately grabbed the Olkari monarch. He raised his Bayard and held it against the king’s throat menacingly, clearly intending to use him as a hostage. “Okay, we’re walking out of here! Anyone tries to stop us and Lubos gets it!”

“Whoa, K-Keith!” Shiro seemed shocked at Keith’s threat to harm the Olkari king.

“That came out of nowhere!” Lance spluttered.

You snorted. “Lance, this is _Keith_ you’re talking to. Why do you sound so surprised?”

Lubos stared at his servant. “La-sai, what are you doing?”  
  
The Olkari called La-Sai glared at the king. “You betrayed our people. I can’t live this lie anymore.”  
  
Keith once again motioned threateningly with his Bayard. “You don’t want me to hurt your genius engineer, right?”  
  
“Oh, be my guest,” the Galra Commander told him dismissively. “His work is done. The cube is complete.”

“What?” Lubos cried. “But – but I thought we had a deal!”

“Guards, put them all out of their misery,” the Galra ordered.

Before you could react, the Green Lion crashed through the wall. “Your ride is here!” Pidge cried.

“Engage the cube! Take down the Lion!” shouted the Galra Commander.

At his command, the enormous cube started to rise above the courtyard.

“The cube is operational! We’ve got to get back to the other Lions and form Voltron!” Shiro told Pidge urgently.

“On it!” she grunted.

**************************************

Ryner looked at the Olkari King as Shiro threw him to the ground with disgust. “Lubos! What’s going on?”

Shiro responded. “While your countrymen starved, King Lubos was well taken care of by the Galra. He willingly helped them build that cube, willingly helped to enslave his own people.”

At the gasps of dismay and disbelief at their king’s betrayal, Shiro continued. “I know you’re devastated, but it’s time to be strong and use your Olkari spirit to fight alongside Voltron and take back your planet!”

Shiro and the rest of you headed to the Lions, taking to the skies as quickly as possible.

“Lubos, how could you?” Ryner asked her king sadly.

“I – I was only trying to…”

“Enough!” Ryner held up a hand to silence him. “We must free our people!”

The cheers of the onlooking crowd were deafening, as the Olkari gave their support to overthrowing their Galra oppressors.

**************************************

The team headed back to their Lions, forming Voltron and heading towards the cube.

“All right, team, let’s take that thing down! Form shield!” Shiro ordered.

“Let’s see how tough this magic cube is,” Keith said, firing the Red Lion’s mouth cannon, even as the others also fired.

The combined fire power of all the Lions did absolutely nothing.

You stared at the cube in disbelief. “Did it just absorb our lasers?”

“We need to increase firepower! Hunk, use your blaster!” Shiro yelled.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Pidge interjected, but the Yellow Paladin ignored her, already aiming Voltron’s shoulder cannon towards the cube.

“Got it! Yeah, I think it’s working!” Hunk cried.

It wasn’t working.

The cube fired back at Voltron, the fire power seemingly stronger than what had originally been directed at it.

“It’s giving back whatever we fire into it, like Coran’s echo cube,” Shiro ground out.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you guys!” Pidge’s voice sounded exasperated. “It’s learning! Making its own versions of our weapons to use against us!”

“We can’t just sit here. We’ve got to move!” Lance exclaimed.

“How do we beat it?” Hunk asked.

“Maybe, if we form our sword, we can cut through the surface and hack right into the centre of the thinking… point… place?” Lance suggested.

“Can’t be any worse than what’s happening now,” Keith muttered with a shrug.

“Let’s do it,” Shiro agreed. “Form sword!”

Voltron’s sword appeared, and sliced through the centre of the tower.

“It’s working!” Pidge cried excitedly, only to be contradicted a second later as the cube – now two cubes - returned fire on all of you.

“It’s still operational! Re-engage!” Shiro ordered.

“We did it! They’re going down!” Hunk cried, as Voltron once again shot the cubes, seemingly obliterating them.

“Uh-oh!” Lance wailed, as it became apparent that the cubes were not, in fact, going down.

“We’ve got to move! Move! We can’t fight them like this! We need to split up! Back into Lions!” Shiro’s voice was strained as Voltron separated, the team once again fighting individually in their Lions.

“Let’s see if I can freeze these guys!” Lance huffed, using the Blue Lion’s freeze ray on one of the cubes, which immediately reflected the freeze ray back at him.

“Oh, no! So cold, so cold! – Oh, oh. Thanks, Keith,” he said gratefully as the Red Lion’s heat cannon melted the ice.

“You got it,” Keith told him.

_‘I knew you didn’t hate Lance,’_ you thought smugly.

_‘If you say anything to anyone, I will categorically deny it,’_ he retorted.

“Shiro, what are we going to do?” Hunk asked the Black Paladin.

“There doesn’t seem to be any way to stop them, but we can’t let this weapon get into Zarkon’s hands!” Shiro cried. He shouted again as the Green Lion fell way, seeming to lose power. “Pidge!”

“The Green Lion’s in trouble!” you heard Ryner’s voice over the comms.

“Pidge! Are you okay?” you called, desperately trying to reach the Green Paladin. It seemed that she and the Green Lion had crashed into the forest.

“Where are you, Pidge?” Shiro cried again, searching through the Olkari forest. “We need you!”

“Pidge!” Keith shouted, his voice betraying his worry for the tiny Paladin.

You gave a sigh of relief when you eventually heard Pidge respond. “Guys, hang on!”

“Woah, Pidge! What’s going on? You’re booking!” Hunk exclaimed as the Green Lion flew faster than you had ever witnessed. Even Keith hadn’t been able to fly Red as fast as Green was currently moving.

“I’m not sure, but I feel more connected with my Lion than ever! I know what I have to do!”

She fired at the cubes, and they became entangled in a bunch of writhing vines, rendering them immobile. Pidge let out a whoop of triumph as the weapons fell to the ground.

“Whoa! How’d you do that?” Lance’s voice was filled with awe.

“That’s right! Circle up, everybody! Get some of this!” Pidge sounded delighted to be unleashing her newfound ability on the unsuspecting enemy.

“Vines. Well, that is not the way I thought a giant cube of death would go down,” Hunk muttered.

You and Keith agreed with that sentiment.

**************************************

Ryner smiled gratefully at the team. “I want to thank you all. You helped us get our home back. And, for that, we will never be able to repay you.”

“Just promise me that when it’s time to take the fight to Zarkon, we can count on the Olkari for help,” Shiro said.

She nodded. “Now and forever. And you,” she said, turning to Pidge. “The spirit of the Olkari resides in you. The bond between you and your Lion has grown stronger than ever.”

“Without you, I would never have been able to unlock my Lion’s hidden power,” Pidge said softly.

**************************************

The team was gathered once more on the bridge of the Castle.

“Nice job, Pidge,” Shiro said, placing a hand on the petite Paladin’s shoulder, a proud smile on his face.

Pidge looked conflicted. “You know, it’s weird. I’ve always been a tech junkie. That’s how I connected with the world. But, for the first time, I feel connected to _everything._ I guess it’s like Ryner said. We’re all made up of the same cosmic dust.”

“So, that means we’re all related. This ship, those stars, the Olkari.” Keith’s gaze turned thoughtful. “Even the Galra.”

“Uh-oh. I think Keith just blew his own mind,” Hunk quipped. Keith sulked as the rest of you laughed, particularly put out by your mirth at his expense.

Coran greeted all of you as you entered the Castleship. “Well, that was a productive trip. Look at all these cubes they gave me!” He spoke into the multitude of cubes surrounding him. “Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man!”

**[Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man!]**

He looked ecstatic, ignoring the groans of everyone. “Ah, sounds pretty good.”

**[As, sounds pretty good!]**

Without warning, an alarm started sounding.

“What’s that…?”

Everyone stared in horror at the huge fleet of Galra ships heading towards the Castle.

“Oh, no…” Coran cried with dismay.

**[Oh, no…]**


	4. If You Like Pina Coladas, And Getting Caught By Evil Galactic Overlords...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Paladins have been given some time off to recharge. You just want to sit by the pool with a good book and a drink. It’s a pity Emperor Zarkon didn’t get the memo…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter relates to Series 2, Episode 5: “Eye of the Storm”

The alarm was blaring as Zarkon’s enormous command ship loomed in front of the Castleship, surrounded by the largest fleet of Galra warships you had seen so far.

“Zarkon!” Allura exclaimed with frustration, staring at the Galra warfleet which greeted you as you left Olkarion space. “How did he find us?”

“His commanders must have radioed him from Olkarion,” Keith surmised.

“We need to wormhole, now!” Shiro said. “Everyone to your stations. We’ve got to put some distance between us and Zarkon. This could be the fight of our lives.”

The team raced to their seats on the bridge, bringing up their consoles to help defend the Castle. The Castle shook as it was hit by multiple blasts from the Galra fleet.

“That’s sure a lot of fighters,” Hunk said, sounding depressed.

“Allura, can you evade these fighters? We can’t have them following us through the wormhole,” Shiro noted.

“I can try,” replied the princess, pushing the thrusters to full speed.

“Keith, Lance, let’s lay down some covering fire,” Shiro ordered the boys with a grunt. Three drones were deployed, each controlled by a different Paladin. They started returning fire on the Galra fighters, taking several jets out in quick succession.

“Lance, incoming, twelve o’clock high!” you told your friend as you scanned the radar.

“Got it, cutie. Hey!” Lance glared balefully at Keith, whose drone had shot the approaching group of jets – purely from his annoyance at Lance’s affectionate nickname for you - before Lance could pull the trigger on his.

“Sorry,” Keith replied, sounding the opposite of apologetic. “Gotta be quick!”

It was his turn to glare as Lance bumped the red drone with his blue one. “How’s _that_ for quick?”

“You…” Keith started.

The two of them butted their drones together, completely ignoring the Galra fighters surrounding the Castle.

“Knock it off, you two!” Shiro told them. “Stay in your zones!”  
  
“Yeah, Keith!” Lance rubbed the back of his head after you lobbed a pen at him.

“That means you too, you dunce!” you hissed at him, ignoring the thrum of satisfaction that Keith sent through your life-bond. He enjoyed those rare occasions when you were upset with Lance instead of him.

“Keep calling out those fighters, Y/N! Pidge, Hunk, how are the defences holding?” Shiro asked.

“I don’t know,” Hunk admitted. “Ten percent? Fifteen maybe? Everything’s a blur. I’ve been up too long. I have tired eyes!”

“I know we just came off an intense battle, but we’ve got to stay focused, just until we jump,” Shiro said.

“And when is that?” Keith muttered while the Galra fleet continued to rain laser fire upon the Castle.

“They’re still too close! We need to gain more speed!” Coran advised.

“I’ve got an idea! Hold on!” Allura cried as she increased the speed of the Castleship whilst steering it in the direction of the nearby moon.

“Allura, what are you doing?” Pidge squeaked.

“I’m going to use this moon’s gravity to gain speed and put some distance between us and Zarkon,” the princess replied breezily, as if the answer should have been obvious and she did this sort of thing every day.

“We’re clear to wormhole!” Coran told Allura.

The princess opened the wormhole and the Castleship flew through it, evading Zarkon’s fleet in the nick of time.

Relief, however, was short-lived, as an alarm continued to sound loudly.

“We got away from Zarkon, how come we’re still on alert?” Lance asked in a panic.

“Coran, what’s going on?” Shiro asked the Altean advisor.

Coran looked over the instrument panel, locating the problem relatively quickly. “Oh, no! Teludav lens malfunction! We’re about to exit this wormhole a lot sooner than we planned!”

The team grunted as the Castleship bounced out of the wormhole and into what appeared to be a frozen asteroid field.

Lance looked out of the window. “Whoa. Where are we? Looks like some sort of iceberg graveyard.”

“Coran, what’s the status?” Allura asked, her voice faint.

“Checking that now. We didn’t make it to our exit point, but we’re several galaxies from Zarkon’s fleet.” He turned to the princess in time to see her swaying on her feet. “Allura!”

“Allura!” everyone echoed with alarm, rushing towards her as she collapsed.

Coran hovered over Allura as Shiro steadied her and led her to the step, where she sat down. “Oh, no, you look exhausted. You must rest. You’ve been exerting way too much energy. I’ll go check on the main turbine and figure out what’s going… Aaaaaaaaaargh!”

You looked up as Coran’s sentence was cut off by a shrill scream as he crashed into the wall.

“Coran, are you all right?” you asked him with concern, noting with some confusion that he appeared to be soaking wet.

“I’m fine,” he groaned. “Look, I tell you what, I’ve probably hit a slippery spot on the ground here. Someone please wipe that up there.” He pointed to the puddle at his feet.

“You’re sweating,” Allura told him with a sympathetic smile. “You might have a case of The Slipperies.”

“What? No!” Coran denied. “No, that’s an old person virus, and I’m not old. I’m young. Well, young-ish.”

“What are The Slipperies?” Lance asked curiously.

Allura advised, “It’s a common Altean virus that occurs… _later_ in life. It’s not harmful and usually only lasts a couple of days, but it causes one’s body to secrete extremely slick fluid.”

“Ew!” Pidge gagged.

“Gross!” you echoed, scrunching up your face with disgust.

The team moved away from Coran as discreetly as possible, leaving him standing in a fairly large puddle of… well, whatever it was.

“Yes, it is gross, so it’s a good thing I don’t have it!” Coran said, ignoring the waterfall of sweat dripping from his outstretched arms. You gagged again as Pidge raced to the corner and promptly threw up. Hunk was just relieved that somebody else had a weak stomach for a change.

“Coran, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Allura said soothingly, although it was obvious that she was having some difficulty controlling her amusement at her loyal advisor’s predicament.

“I’m not embarrassed because I don’t have it! And now, I’m actually going to leave because I’ve got to fix the main turbine!” Coran whimpered as he skidded on the floor, then screamed as he sped down the hallway in a puddle of slime. “Quiznak!”

Shiro turned to all of you. “All right. Since Zarkon has no idea where we are, this is the perfect time to focus on our next step. Maybe we can find that secret group, the Blade of Marmora. Pidge, where are those coordinates?”

Pidge groaned, slumping in front of her console. “Wait, hang on. I’m so tired, my brain’s not working.”

“Yeah, neither is mine,” Lance mumbled. You rubbed his shoulders, staring at Keith and daring him to say anything derogatory about your friend.

Wisely, for once the Red Paladin kept his mouth shut. He’d been getting on your nerves more than usual lately, and was beginning to recognise the warning signs that he was on very thin ice as far as your patience was concerned.

“Hello, all. I’ve checked the engines,” Coran announced on the vid-screen. He’d been gone less than a minute.

“That was fast,” Pidge said with surprise.

“Well, I slipped right down,” he groaned. “I mean, hurried down. Anyway, the good news is, the Galra fighter did minimal damage. I flushed the turbine and it’s fine. The bad news is, the teludav, or wormholer, as you Earthlings call it, is in bad shape. Several scaultrite lens-stones of the magnifying beam generator are cracked.”

At your blank stares, Coran attempted to clarify things further. “As you know, the magnifying beam generator uses a crystal to convert Altean energy into usable fuel. That supplies the power needed to wormhole. Well, anyway, I need to remove the cracked lenses and readjust their trajectory temporarily until we can replace them. I’ll also need to divert power to make up for the lost energy. Anyway,” he concluded. “It’s going to take at least a quintant.”

Hunk groaned.

Shiro looked resigned. “All right. We’ll hide the ship and get some rest while Coran comes up with a work-around. Tomorrow, we’ll be sharper and refocused.”

With a grateful sigh, the team disbanded to head to their quarters for some much needed rest.

**************************************

Pidge had decided to take advantage of the rest time to attempt to learn some basic Altean, and Hunk headed to the kitchen, as usual. Baking always made him happy, and the rest of you were usually more than willing to taste test his latest culinary creations.

You, however, had other plans. You had discovered that the Castleship had a pool, and you were determined to make the most of the limited opportunity you were given to relax.

Despite your pleading and puppy dog eyes and foot stamping and threats to cry, Lance absolutely refused to join you. He told you that he was exhausted, and just wanted to put on a face mask, pop his headphones on, and sleep for the next twenty-four hours. As soon as he left you, he commenced to do exactly that.

Pouting, you made your way to the elevator. Alone. Blissfully, thankfully, finally alone. For a few delightful hours, hopefully, it would just be you, your book, and one of those wonderful space juices that came with the little umbrella in it. You might even dip your toes in the water if the mood struck. Your toes curled with excitement at the thought.

Unfortunately, the blissful feeling didn’t last very long. A hand stopped the elevator door just as it was about to close, and someone else joined you. Someone dressed in nothing but swim trunks which sat low on his hips and only drew further attention to his lean, muscular frame. Someone who was absolutely ten thousand percent the last person you wanted to be near right now.

“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” you asked irritably, a black look crossing your features.

Keith kept his expression blank as he tried desperately to ignore the fact that you were dressed in nothing but a swimsuit. It was hardly what could be described as skimpy – the other girls at the Garrison had worn considerably less when using the pool there – but the tank top and boyleg shorts you wore only emphasised your curves and toned limbs. Seriously, were you _trying_ to kill him?

“Allura said there’s a pool,” he mumbled in a monotone. “I’m gonna check it out. What do you think _you’re_ doing?”

You sighed heavily. “Same thing.”

The two of you stared everywhere but at each other. Keith eventually broke the silence. “Look, you stay on one side of the pool and I’ll stay on the other, and we’ll be far, far away from each other. Very… far… away.”

He sounded slightly disappointed at the prospect.

“Yes, well, as long as you leave me alone so I can read my book, I’m sure we’ll get along swimmingly,” you deadpanned.

The lights in the elevator went out before it stopped completely. “Uh…”

You and Keith stared into the darkness for a couple of seconds, then simultaneously heaved long-suffering sighs.

Honestly, how the quiznak did you get yourself into these situations?

Stupid Lance. It was all his fault. If he hadn’t been out of his quarters after curfew, then none of this would have happened. You would never have snuck out of the Garrison to spy on Pidge, and you never would have seen the crashing spaceship, so you never would have found Shiro, which meant that you never would have realised that Keith was back, therefore you most certainly would never have jumped on the back of that stupid hoverbike as he ‘rescued’ Shiro, and you categorically would never have followed him into some stupid cave to break into some giant robotic space lion and fly to the other side of the universe and end up fighting an evil alien race.

Actually, come to think of it, this was all Keith’s fault.

Keith grunted, straining against your back, arms linked as the two of you tried unsuccessfully to shimmy up the elevator shaft. “It’s right, then left. You’re off.”

You shoved against him as hard as you could. “ _You’re_ off! And shoving too hard!”

He shoved back, almost squashing you against the wall. “You’re not shoving hard _enough!”_

“I should be at the pool right now!” you whined.

Keith remained unmoved. “Would you stop whining?”

“No, Keith! I will _not_ stop whining! All I want to do is lie near the pool with my book and a drink! That’s all! Is that too much to ask? _Is it?_ I don’t really think I’m being completely unreasonable here!”

Keith ignored your rant and looked up, then somehow managed to gain your attention. “Look!”

You looked up where he was indicating with his chin, and almost wept with relief. There was a duct which appeared to lead towards… the pool! It was only a few feet above you. You were nearly there!

After a couple more minutes of awkward shuffling upward – and continual bickering the entire time - Keith kicked through the wall of the elevator shaft, and the two of you slid down the air duct. Both of you yelped as you fell out of the duct before landing with a loud ‘thump’ on the floor. As you lay gasping for breath, you looked around desperately for the pool. There was no pool. Maybe you were on the wrong floor…

Keith grunted once more, and you noted that he was staring up at the ceiling in consternation.

“What the heck?” Your voice was filled with outrage as you looked up.  
  
“Stupid Altean pools,” Keith muttered.

The pool was on the ceiling.

Keith was more than a little alarmed when you burst into tears.

**************************************

You and Keith raced back to the bridge, the blaring of the sirens making your visit to the pool deck a complete non-event. The eyes of every other member of the team widened when they noticed that both of you were still in your swimsuits as you took your seats on the bridge, but for once nobody said anything.

“Particle barrier up!” Allura advised. “Coran, are you there?”

Coran’s voice rang through the comms. “I’m here!” A muffled scream, followed by some crashing. “Over here! Whoa, whoa, _whoa!”_

“Zarkon is back! What’s our status?” the princess demanded.

“Wormholing will be a problem. The lenses haven’t been readjusted! I don’t know if the teludav will generate enough power.”  
  
“Do everything you can!” Allura told him.

“They found us again? How is that possible? _Is_ that possible? That doesn’t seem possible!” you babbled as you took your seat, your exhaustion combined with your terror at the Galra Emperor’s ability to find you no matter where you went overriding your ability to form coherent sentences.

_‘Babe, calm down,’_ Keith tried to soothe your frayed nerves.

_‘I’M PERFECTLY CALM!’_ You felt his wince at the hysteria in your thought.

“Right now, we must figure out a way to get out of here,” Allura said.

“Or we can stay and fight,” Keith insisted. “Now’s our chance. Form Voltron. Enough running!”

“It’s too dangerous!” Allura declared.

Shiro looked at Keith. “Allura’s right. We can’t take on Zarkon and his entire fleet. Remember what happened at Zarkon’s command centre. We wouldn’t have escaped if the Blade of Marmora hadn’t shut down the shield.”

“The turbine’s up,” Coran advised. “Still working on the worm…”

Screams, groans and more screams sounded over the comms. “Uh, guys, I think I’m realising now that I do, in fact, have a case of The Slipperies. I’m sorry I yelled at you, Pidge. I may need your help after all.”  
  
“I’m coming down,” Pidge replied, running to give Coran her assistance.

“Let’s clear a path,” Shiro said.

“Lance, there’s a fighter advancing on your nine!” Keith shouted, looking at his screen as the drones retaliated against the Galra fighters.

“Thanks for the heads up! And you’ve got one going for the lower barrier,” the Blue Paladin replied.

“Good eye!” Keith complimented him, causing Lance to grin widely.

“Okay, buddy, you’re mine.” Lance took aim at a Galra fighter, then stared in shock as his controls deactivated. “What’s going on? I lost control of my defense drone!”

“I got you covered!” Keith assured him. He looked confused as his console also disappeared. “Uh, I don’t got you. Oh, there must be a system failure.”

“Nope, that was us!” Pidge apologised as Coran screamed in the background. “We’re diverting power from non-essential systems to get the wormhole generator working.”

“Shooting bad guys is pretty essential!” you pointed out, your voice shrill with hysteria.

“We lost secondary controls!” Hunk alerted everyone. “Thermal regulator’s offline! Oh, no, there goes the particle barrier!”

“Okay, try it! We should be able to make one very small jump… I hope,” Coran said.

Allura closed her eyes as she concentrated on generating the wormhole.

“Is it gonna hold?” Pidge asked anxiously.

“I guess we’re about to find out.”  
  
“The wormhole’s open!” Shiro pointed.

“Oh, no! The lenses are breaking down even more! We’ll be out of the wormhole even sooner this time!” Coran wailed.

The Castle exited the wormhole, and the team collapsed into their seats, exhausted. Keith could barely keep his eyes open, but he smiled softly in your direction when he noticed you curled up in your seat, head resting on your hand as you dozed.

“Zarkon keeps finding us,” Shiro gritted out. “It’s like he knows how to track us down. Maybe he planted some kind of tracking device.”

“Well, it is nothing on the ship,” Allura declared a tad huffily. “The Castle would have detected any tracking devices.”

“Until we figure out exactly how he’s doing it, we should assume that he could show up at any minute. So, stay alert,” Shiro told everyone.

Hunk, who had somehow managed to fall asleep amid all the commotion, awoke with a start. “Oh, man! Oh, what’s going on? What are you guys doing? What are you looking at?”

Keith stared at him. “You woke yourself up snoring.”

Hunk looked downcast. “My bad.”

“Coran, what’s our status?” Shiro asked. “Any good news?”

“Actually, there is a bit of good news,” came the cheerful reply. “I’m finally getting used to these Slipperies. My mucus glands are working at an incredible rate!”

Shiro replied with remarkable patience, which impressed you enormously. “Any good news about the teludav?”

“I’m afraid not. The last jump overloaded the lens-stones. Now, even more of them are broken. I’m going to try some readjustments to change the beam trajectory. Until then, wormholing away will be impossible.”

“Hey, there’s a giant metallic storm ahead of us. I think we can hide in the eye of the storm,” Pidge said. “It should give off enough interference so we can’t be tracked.”

Shiro shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

The princess steered the Castleship directly into the eye of the storm, checking the scans to determine if the team was indeed safe from the enemy.

“Brilliant, Pidge,” Allura praised the Green Paladin. “We’re essentially invisible to any radar, radio waves, universal scans or any other known technology.”

An alarm immediately started blaring.

“No!” gasped Allura.

Zarkon’s enormous ship appeared in front of you once again, and what seemed to be the entire fleet of fighter jets swarmed towards the Castle. You, Lance and Keith all groaned in unison while Shiro and Hunk looked on with dismay.

“Okay, I don’t know how he found us, but it definitely wasn’t with normal instruments,” you hissed with indignation.

“It’s me,” Allura whispered. “It’s been me all along. That’s how they found us on planet Arus.”

“It doesn’t matter, Princess,” Shiro responded. “We’re in this together. We’re gonna get out together.”

“Uh, how? We’re trapped,” Hunk replied.

“We need to form Voltron and go through the storm.” Several pairs of eyes blinked at Shiro.

“The storm? What are you, nuts?” Lance’s voice was a couple of octaves higher than normal.

“Yeah! What… Wha… What do you mean? Yeah, wh-wh-why would we do that?” Hunk stammered.

Shiro kept his gaze steady as he looked at each of you in turn. “It’s risky, I know, but it’s our only chance. We have to go through the storm, then lure Zarkon’s ship away, giving Allura some time to get into open space.”

“Then what?” Allura asked him.

“Then, we wormhole away. Coran, remember how you said getting this Castle to wormhole is impossible? Well, I need you to do the impossible.”

**************************************

The Lions flew as one, heading out into the galactic storm to take on the Galra fleet.

“Form Voltron!” Shiro ordered. Once the giant robot had been formed, he spoke again. “Team, let’s draw those fighters out!”

Keith gave a grunt of satisfaction as he noted several fighters chasing you. “I think it’s working! They’re following us!”

You watched your screen anxiously as the Galra jets started to disintegrate. “They can’t follow us in this storm! It’s tearing them apart!”

“The debris!” Hunk cried, his voice coloured with worry as Voltron was hit by several pieces of shrapnel. “It’s gonna tear _us_ apart if we don’t do something!”

“Pidge, we’re gonna need that shield!” Shiro ground out.

“On it!”

“And Keith, the sword!”

“Yes, Sir!” Keith put the Red Bayard into the console and twisted, bringing up Voltron’s sword. He swung at the incoming debris, forcing it away from you.

“Legs, I need everything you got!” Shiro told Lance and Hunk.

“Roger! Engaging lower thrusters!” Hunk said.

“I’m right there with ya!” Lance echoed.

Voltron burst out of the debris field, and ended up directly in front of the enormous ship which held the Galra Emperor. You breathed a sigh of relief as Allura steered the Castleship away from the electrical storm.

Hunk cheered with satisfaction. “It worked! They escaped!”

His cheers immediately turned into a panicked scream, and the rest of you started yelling along with him as you began to lose control of your Lions.

“What’s going on?” Keith demanded.

“My Lion!” Hunk cried with alarm.

Voltron was inexorably being drawn back towards Zarkon’s ship, caught in a powerful tractor beam.

“Zarkon…” Shiro groaned.

Keith snarled in frustration. “Zarkon’s taking control of the Black Lion again! Fall back!”

The team pushed every thruster to full capacity, to no avail. Voltron was trapped, and it appeared that the Galra Emperor was finally going to fulfil his wish of recapturing the Black Lion.

Just as it seemed that Voltron was going to be torn apart, a blast hit the Galra ship, causing the tractor beam to lose its hold of the robot. The Castleship reappeared, firing relentlessly upon Zarkon’s ship.

“Paladins, now’s your chance! Get out of there!” Allura cried.

Not needing to be told a second time, Voltron sped away from Zarkon as fast as the thrusters would allow.

“I forgot how intense Zarkon’s connection to the Black Lion is,” Shiro told her. “We have to keep our distance, or risk losing Voltron. Let’s disband and get back to the Castle.”

The Lions headed back to the Castle, desperately hoping to return to safety before the Galra fleet could recover.

“Why haven’t we wormholed yet?” Keith asked, his voice filled with irritation.

“Because we can’t!” Coran answered. “We’re missing several scaultrite lens-stones!”

“Wait, did you say ‘scaultrite’? I’ve seen that somewhere before,” Pidge mused. “I think Hunk was making some terrible cookies from that stuff!”

Hunk’s responding growl sounded offended.

**************************************

Coran inspected Hunk’s ‘cookies’, watching with interest as the scans analysed their composition. “Unbelievable! These cookies _do_ have trace elements of scaultrite.”

“Could they work?” Shiro asked him.

Coran hummed thoughtfully. “They _might_ be able to hold for one jump, but we’d still need several people actually physically holding them. And, if the trajectories were calculated just so…”

You didn’t trust the glint in his eyes as he looked at each of you speculatively.

**************************************

Everyone grunted uncomfortably as Coran handed each of you a couple of ‘cookies’ and positioned you at various points within the wormhole generator.

Hunk sighed happily. “It just warms my heart that people are enjoying my cookies.”

“Okay, there. Now, nobody move if you want to live,” Coran told you nonchalantly.

Lance’s expression grew frightened. “I think I moved! I think I moved!”

“Well, then move back to where you think you were!” Coran barked at him. “Okay, now, I’m going to monitor the beam from out there.”

The Altean moved to the exterior of the wormhole generator, where you noted that he would be relatively safe from any possible power fluctuations.

You narrowed your eyes at him with suspicion. “Wait, Coran! How dangerous _is_ this?”

“Honestly, this is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen, or heard of, but since we’re probably going to die anyway, what the heck, let’s give it a shot!” he replied breezily. “Good luck, gentlemen and gentleladies. It’s been a pleasure. Don’t touch the lasers!”

The door shut, sealing all of you into the wormhole generator.

“Uh…” Hunk muttered.

“They’re in position!” Coran told Allura cheerfully. Honestly, why was it that every time you guys were in a situation where you were most likely about to die, he seemed positively gleeful?

“We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!” Lance screamed as the teludav powered up.

“Hold tight, Lance!” you said, hoping that you sounded a lot braver than you were currently feeling. Lance continued to scream, then stopped as he realised that the teludav had turned off and none of you were dead yet.

“It’s not working!” Coran shrieked with outrage.

“Coran, what’s happening? Zarkon’s right on top of us!” Allura’s voice was filled with urgency.

“The stones aren’t reflecting properly! I need something to shine them up!” His face lit up as inspiration struck. “Oh, wait a second. I think I’ve got it. Hit the wormhole in ten ticks!”

**[Ten…]** Allura began counting down.

“What’s happening?” Shiro asked.

**[…nine…]**

“No one move!” Coran said in a bossy tone as he wiped his hands over his body, slicking them up as much as possible. “I’ve got to shine these stones! Good thing I’ve got a case of The Slipperies!”

He slid around the chamber of the wormhole generator, sliming each of your hands so that the stones were covered in slippery goo. You tried not to gag at the sensation.

**[…six…five…four…three…two…]**

Coran seemed to realise too late that he was still trapped in the chamber with all of you just as the teludav was powering up once more, and with a terrified squeak he hid behind one of the larger lenses near Hunk.

**[…one!]**

Everyone screamed as the generator activated, allowing Allura to successfully open up the wormhole. The pain that was searing through your body was unlike anything you had ever felt before. It took everything you had not to let go of the stones and collapse in a heap.

Allura stood in the doorway of the wormhole generator, a huge smile on her beautiful face. “Great work, team! We made it!”

She was greeted with corresponding groans from everyone. Lance yelped as he fell to the floor.

“Can I go to the pool now?” you whined.


	5. Go Your Own Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You are recovering from space-flu, so you are ordered to stay on the Castleship as Shiro and the other Paladins head to a ravaged planet to help its desperate citizens escape. You try to control your jealousy when Keith leaves the Castle with Allura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is based on Series 2, Episode 6 “The Ark of Taujeer”

“There’s no point in debating this further. Zarkon is clearly tracking us through me.” Allura’s tone of voice indicated that she was done talking about the subject.

“Aww, space baloney,” Lance told her.  
  
“That’s not possible,” Pidge contradicted the princess.

Allura glared at both of them. “Why would that be so hard to believe? Zarkon’s forces showed up on Arus only after I awoke.”

Lance nodded thoughtfully. “She’s got a point. I would absolutely travel across the galaxy to find you,” he said flirtatiously, causing Allura to roll her eyes.

“It’s not you, Princess Allura. It’s me,” Keith interjected.

“Because…?” Hunk asked.  
  
“I just think… I mean, Zarkon must’ve imprinted on me during our fight or something,” he replied lamely.

“Well, then maybe it’s Y/N. She was there too, maybe Zarkon imprinted on _her,”_ Pidge pointed out.

You felt your stomach drop at the thought that _you_ could be the reason the Galra Emperor seemed to have no difficulty locating the team, no matter where you fled. It just added to the nauseous feeling you’d had for the past few hours.

“Look, the fact is, we don’t know _how_ Zarkon is tracking us. It could be through the Black Lion. Every time Zarkon gets close to it, Shiro has to fight him for control,” you reminded everyone, hoping to shift the focus off yourself. You let out a huge sneeze, apologising as you blew into a handkerchief.

“That’s only when Zarkon is nearby,” Coran objected. “No Paladin has ever been able to connect with a Lion over a vast distance.”

“So what are we going to do?” Hunk asked.

“Look, it doesn’t matter how he’s tracking us because we’re going to take the fight to the Galra soon enough,” Shiro said seriously. “They’ve been chasing us from galaxy to galaxy. The last thing they expect is for us to come after them.”

“The hunter becomes the hunted, hmm? Awesome! That’s the tag line from, like, six of my favourite movies,” Lance informed you proudly.

“As it happens, I took our list of recent Galra attacks and analysed it for both commonalities and anomalies among the attack sites,” Pidge said, speaking rapidly in her excitement. She typed furiously on her keyboard as she spoke. “I was hoping to create an algorithm that would, within a statistically acceptable margin of error, provide a list of target-rich Galra environments. Colour-coded, of course, because what are we, animals?”

She brought up her data, immersing all of you in the constellation map as she highlighted the information she’d found.

“Cool!” Lance seemed impressed by Pidge’s discovery, only to immediately look perplexed. “What is it again?”

“It’s a Galra finder?” Hunk asked.

“Well, ‘finder’ suggests that it locates the Galra, whereas it would be more accurate to say that my model predicts their likeliest…” Pidge paused as she looked at the puzzled expressions on everyone’s faces. Sighing in defeat, she said, “Fine. It’s a Galra finder.”

“Soooooo, where _are_ the Galra?” Keith asked as he inspected Pidge’s model.

Pidge pointed to an area on the chart that had been highlighted. “The nearest ones are right here. A planet called Taujeer.”

“Then that’s where we’re headed,” Shiro decided. “Everyone should get some sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll find that Galra fleet and take it out.”

Shiro stopped you and Keith, waiting until the others had left before he spoke to the Red Paladin. “Is everything okay?”

Keith squirmed a bit as he averted his gaze. “Yeah, why?”

“You just seem a bit anxious.”

“I’m fine. Just tired. Like you said, I should get some sleep.” Keith shrugged, trying to convince his friend that nothing was wrong, even though both of you could feel the anxiety rolling off him. He turned and left, heading to his quarters.

With a shrug of his own, which clearly indicated that he didn’t believe Keith, Shiro turned to you, taking note of your glassy eyes and flushed cheeks. He placed a hand on your forehead, frowning as he felt your elevated temperature. “Y/N, make sure you get some sleep as well. I think you might be coming down with something, and we need you at one hundred percent, okay?”

“I’m fine, Shiro. Never felt better.” Another huge sneeze, followed by a hacking cough, contradicted your statement.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” Shiro said softly. You didn’t protest as he put an arm around your shoulders and steered you towards your sleep chamber.

**************************************

“Space flu?” you wheezed, your voice hoarse and raspy. You were wrapped in your blankets like a space burrito, trying to control your shivering.

Coran nodded as he looked at the med-scanner. “Yes. The scans indicate that you seem to have quite a severe case of it. Bed rest is what you need.”

“I can’t rest! Zarkon is out there! I need to be helping you guys figure out how he’s tracking us!” You started coughing violently.

Shiro gave you his sternest ‘Space Dad’ face. “Y/N, you will be no good to us if you collapse from exhaustion. You need to rest. If you set even one foot out of this room in the next twenty-four hours, I will have Allura stick you in a healing pod.”

With a pout, you reluctantly agreed to your leader’s orders. “Fine. I’ll be good.”

He smiled gently at you. “It’s only for a day or two, Y/N. I promise you will feel much better after you’ve rested.”

“Fine,” you said again, closing your eyes in resignation. With a sigh, you flopped back against your pillows.

“Sleep. I’ll have Hunk make you some chicken soup.” Shiro and Coran left you snoring softly as you finally succumbed to your illness.

**************************************

Keith frowned as the Red Lion growled at him, refusing to grant him entry. “Huh? What’s the matter, Red? It’s me.”

A voice he didn’t expect sounded in his mind.

**_‘I can find you anywhere.’_ **

Keith’s eyes widened in shock.

_Zarkon had found him._

He sat bolt upright, his bedsheets a tangled mess, sweat beading on his forehead. It was just a dream. Actually, more like a nightmare, but still…

Drawing his knife from its hiding place under his pillow, Keith’s expression became resolved. He knew what he had to do.

He just had to make sure you didn’t find out about it first.

**************************************

Keith hid behind one of the transport pods as he heard footsteps approaching. His eyes widened with surprise as he noticed who had entered the hangar. Stepping out from behind the pod, his voice was stern. “Princess, what are you doing here?”

With a startled yelp, Allura fell out of the pod and straight into Keith’s arms. They stared at each other for half a heartbeat, and then with another yelp Allura jumped to the ground. “Oh. I might ask you the same thing.”

“Nothing. Just walking. Late at night. Near the pods.” Even Keith wasn’t convinced by his lame excuse.

“In full Paladin armour, with a bag of your belongings?” Allura asked, her eyebrows raised.

Keith pushed past her, throwing his bag into the pod. “I have to know if Zarkon is tracking me. This is the only way. Don’t try to stop me.”

“I’m not going to stop you.” Allura returned Keith’s startled gaze with a steady one of her own. “I’m going to join you.”

**************************************

“We should be entering Taujeer’s orbit soon,” Coran advised.

Despite his objections, Shiro had been unable to persuade you to stay in your room and rest. After only a couple of hours sleep, you insisted on joining the rest of them on the bridge, although clearly you were still very unwell. Grudgingly, he had agreed to let you stay, on the condition that you remained sitting in your seat on the bridge and _did not move a muscle unless otherwise instructed._

“Raise the particle barrier. Scan for Galra.” Shiro looked around with a frown. “Where are Keith and Allura?”

“It appears that one of the pods launched in the middle of the night,” Coran answered.

You sat bolt upright, your hackles raised. _‘Keith? Keith, where in the quiznak are you?’_

No response.

Maybe he hadn’t heard you. There was no possible way that he was actually ignoring you.

Lance looked as horrified as you felt. “Wait a minute, Keith and Allura? In the middle of the night? You don’t think they’re sittin’ in a tree?”

“Contact the pod,” Shiro ordered Coran.

“Yes! Contact that pod!” Lance echoed.

Coran brought them up on the viewscreen. “Princess, Keith, where are you?”

“Exactly where we should be,” Allura answered calmly. “Far away from the Castle.”

“What? Why?” Shiro demanded.

“We must know if we are the ones Zarkon is tracking,” the princess told him.

“They’re isolating the variable,” Pidge surmised. “Well, isolating _two_ variables.”

Lance blinked at her. “In English, please?”

“In order to test a hypothesis…” Pidge began.

“I said English.”

“Never mind!” Pidge hissed as she crossed her arms in annoyance.

“Pidge is right,” Allura continued. “If Zarkon finds you despite my absence, we will know with total certainty that we are not the ones he is tracking.”

“Splitting up the group makes us far more vulnerable,” Shiro argued. “Come back to the Castle immediately.”  
  
“I’m sorry, Shiro, I cannot do that.”  
  
Keith’s face popped up on the screen. “If Zarkon _does_ find us, I can pilot us to safety. We’re in wide-open space with plenty of room to manoeuvre. Plus, we’d be able to outrun him. Pidge added that booster rocket.”

“That thing’s still on there?” Coran asked.  
  
“We need both of you back here now!” Shiro ordered.

_‘Keith Kogane, you get yourself back here RIGHT NOW!’_ you echoed.

Still no response. He was definitely ignoring you.

You were going to kill him. As soon as you recovered and had enough strength. Life-bond or no life-bond, you were going to kick him out of the airlock the instant he set foot back on the Castleship.

The Castle was hit by something large. “What’s going on?”  
  
Hunk checked the scanners. “We’re in some sort of debris field.”

“I believe it’s coming from Taujeer,” Coran said. He squinted at the screen again. “Correction: I think it _is_ Taujeer!”

“Coran, what’s going on…” Allura’s voice was fuzzy as the transmission cut off.

“Some kind of radiation from the planet is interfering with communications!” Coran exclaimed.

“Move the Castle away from the planet and re-establish the link,” Shiro barked at him. “Everyone else, get to your Lions.”

You got up slowly and started to shuffle towards the hangars. Shiro placed a hand on your shoulder, stopping you before you could leave the bridge. “Not you, Y/N.”

“But Shiro…”

His face grew stern. “No. You are still not well. You’re barely able to stand. Get yourself back to bed.” You started to protest, but he held up a hand. “That’s an order, Y/N.”

“Yes, sir,” you mumbled mutinously as you watched him head towards the hangar to join the other Paladins.

**************************************

While Shiro and the rest of the team flew to the surface of Taujeer to try and help the locals to safety, you were resting fitfully.

You were tossing and turning as you slept, delirious with fever as you tried to fight off the space flu.

You dreamed that Keith was calling you for help.

**************************************

_‘Keith? Keith, where in the quiznak are you?’_

Keith ignored the thought that brushed his mind. He couldn’t afford to think about you; he needed you to be safe, and that meant that he needed to stay as far away from you as possible.

“We’ve been here for hours,” Keith muttered. “Still no sign of Zarkon.”

“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to wait here alone,” Allura said softly. “You understand, I could never live with myself if Zarkon was finding us because of me. I _must_ know. We face such a dire threat from the Galra.”

“Well, sure, they’re bad,” Keith agreed hesitantly. “No doubt about that. But at the same time, couldn’t at least a few of them be fighting for good? Just look at Ulaz. He sacrificed himself to save us.”

“For all we know, his sacrifice was a ploy,” Allura said scathingly. “One life means nothing to Zarkon.”

“It means something to _me,”_ Keith protested. “It means some of them are actually willing to help. And we could use all the help we can get!”

“Any offer of help from the Galra is merely a prelude to a trap,” Allura asserted. “I know all too well how quickly they turn.”

Keith shook his head. “It just seems crazy to lump everyone together.”  
  
“Listen, if there are any good Galra, they have had ten thousand years to take down Zarkon. I would never count on them for help.”

_‘Keith Kogane, you get yourself back here RIGHT NOW!’_

Keith winced internally at the anger in your thought. Oh, if he ever saw you again, you were definitely going to throw him out of the airlock. Better to stay out here in deep space and potentially die than to return to the Castleship just so you could kill him…

After several minutes of silence, Keith spoke again. “So, what happens if Zarkon _does_ come after us?”  
  
“You said you could pilot us to safety, right?” Allura reminded him.

“Sure, but after that, could we even go back to the group? And if we don’t, who would pilot the Castle or create wormholes?”

“Well, what about _you?_ Without you, the team cannot form Voltron,” Allura retorted.

Neither of them remembered that Red was also bonded with another Paladin.

**************************************

Shiro and the others managed to repair part of the structure of the ark on Taujeer, and were just about to return to the Castleship when…

“What was that?” Pidge cried with alarm.

“The Galra. They’re back.” Shiro’s voice was tense. “Hunk! Take the Yellow Lion and hold up the ark. If it falls into the acid, the Taujeerians are doomed.”

“Not to mention the guy beneath them. Which would be me, in this particular scenario,” Hunk said mournfully, as the Yellow Lion struggled under the weight of the Taujeerian ship.

“Lance, Pidge, we’ve got to draw the cruiser’s fire. Coran, we need you here now. Attack the Galra cruiser.”

“I’m on my way!” the Altean confirmed. “Keith, Allura, are you there?”

“We’re here, Coran,” the princess responded. “What is it?”

“Zarkon is definitely not tracking us through either of you.”  
  
Keith’s voice betrayed his doubt. “He’s not?”

“How do you know?” Allura demanded.

“Because you’re out there, and a Galra fleet just showed up here! We need you now!” Coran told her.

“We’ll be there in two doboshes,” Allura assured her advisor.

“Even faster than that,” Keith contradicted, revealing a button on the pod’s console.

“What is that?” Allura asked curiously.

“It’s the booster fuel Pidge added to this pod.” He hit the button, and the pod immediately exploded.

“Aaaaah!” Allura screamed as she was ejected from the ship.

“Aaah! Allura! Grab my hand!” Keith reached for her and managed to prevent her from floating away into space. “Princess, are you okay?”

“I believe so,” she replied. “Is your radio still working?”

“Let’s find out. Coran, can you hear me?”

**************************************

Despite his calls, Keith had been unable to reach Coran or the others. It was beginning to look hopeless.

“We’ll never get there at this rate,” he moaned, his jetpack going full throttle and still seeming to move nowhere.

Allura looked downcast. “This was a terrible mistake. Shiro was right. We never should have left them.”

Keith tried one last time to reach the team, again without any luck. Pursing his lips, he tried to reach you, throwing out his thought to you in the hope that you would respond angrily like always.

When there was no response from you, either, he grew worried. Were you so mad at him that you would completely ignore him when his life was in danger? Was this payback for him ignoring your thoughts earlier?

Desperately, he tried to reach the only other being he could think of that might possibly be able to help.

**************************************

You whined as your eyes slowly peeled open. What on earth had roused you from your much needed sleep?

With a frown, you sat up slowly. The Red Lion was calling to you. You could feel the sense of urgency in your mind. Red was sending you an image of Keith. He was in trouble, and Red needed you.

Groaning as you dragged yourself out of bed, you gingerly made your way to your Lion, muttering under your breath about all of the ways you were going to torture the young man you were connected to.

**************************************

“Keith, Allura, are you there?” Shiro cried desperately. There was no answer. Whatever had happened to them, it had obviously destroyed their communications.

Shiro looked at the Galra fleet and suddenly realised what they were up to. “They’re aiming the ion cannon at the ark! Lance! Pidge! Attack the ship with your jaw blades!”

“Rocks! Big, big rocks!” Hunk called out.

“We got you, buddy,” Lance told him.

Coran fired at the Galra, blasting a few of the fleet to pieces.

“Way to go, Coran!” Shiro cried. “Hunk, what’s your status?”

“Mostly just trying not to fall into a bubbling pot of acid,” the Yellow Paladin ground out.

The Galra attack was relentless. “We’re being overwhelmed!” Lance yelled.

“We need Voltron!” Pidge shouted.

“Oh, if only there were another who could pilot the Red Lion,” Coran cried, falling to his knees in front of the only Lion remaining in the hangar. “Finally, Alfor. I will walk in your footsteps! Oh, Red Lion, I am unworthy to be your Paladin, but since you have chosen to bestow this honour upon me, Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, I humbly accept.”

While Coran was prostrate on the floor, he had failed to notice you enter the cockpit of the Red Lion. Once you were safely aboard, it closed its mouth and flew off, leaving Coran staring in dumbfounded confusion as it left the hangar.

“Right. Okay. Just a quick lap.” When Red failed to return, Coran contacted the others. “Uh, okay, guys? So, yeah, the… the Red Lion ran away.”

**************************************

Allura squinted as she saw a speck in the distance rapidly drawing closer. Realising what it was, she grabbed Keith excitedly. “Keith, look!”

“Huh?” he replied, trying to focus on where she was pointing.

“The Red Lion found you!”

“So, I heard you two might need a ride?” Your voice was husky from the flu, and your tone was as sarcastic as ever, but at that moment it was the most beautiful thing Keith had ever heard.

“Y/N! Are you ever a sight for sore eyes.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Flyboy. Hop in,” you huffed. Your eyes narrowed with displeasure when you saw that Keith still had his arms around Allura.

“Wait, how did you find us? I tried calling you but you didn’t answer. I thought you couldn’t hear me.” He didn’t add that he was worried that you were ignoring him.

“I didn’t hear you. _Red_ heard you, and woke me up. It seemed pretty urgent, so here I am.”

Keith grew alarmed when he noticed just how ill you were. You looked exhausted, your eyes glassy and your nose red and swollen. A slight sheen of perspiration glistened on your brow as your body fought the fever currently coursing through your body. His guilt increased as he realised that he had dragged you out into the middle of nowhere to save his neck, when you should have been resting.

“All right, sweetheart. I’ve got it from here,” he told you gently, trying to move you out of the pilot’s seat.

“I’m fine. I flew out here to save your sorry butts, didn’t I?” You were immediately overcome by a racking cough, thoroughly disproving your assertions that you were okay, and Allura finally managed to convince you to let Keith take over flying Red.

The princess, also feeling guilty, started fussing over you in an attempt to make you feel better. She found several blankets and wrapped you in them, and made you rest quietly while they set a course back to Taujeer.

You fell asleep before Keith had even turned Red around.

**************************************

The team looked up in surprise as the Galra warship’s ion cannon fell into the bubbling acid of the Taujeerian surface. The Red Lion flew past, jaw blade still glinting, as the final piece of Voltron joined them.

“Good to have you back, Keith,” Shiro said, the relief in his voice evident.

“Good to be back,” the Red Paladin replied.

“Is the princess with you?” Lance asked.

“Yes.”

“Like, _‘with you’_ with you, or…”

Lance’s question was interrupted by Hunk’s voice. “Uh, Keith? Little help?”

“On my way, buddy.” Red flew to the aid of the others, pressing against the hull of the Ark of Taujeer in an attempt to prevent it from falling into the acidic liquid only a few feet away.

“All right, everybody. No time to relax,” Shiro reminded everyone. “Let’s show them what they’re dealing with. Form Voltron!”

As the team formed the giant robot, the Galra aimed their warship straight towards the surface of the planet.

“They’re heading for the ark!” Pidge shrieked.

“They’re gonna ram it!” Hunk cried.

Shiro grimaced. “We’ll have to meet them head-on. Form sword!”

“Will the sword be able to cut through an entire battle cruiser?” Lance asked doubtfully.

“It will have to!” Shiro hissed.

Keith frowned as he felt the Red Lion in his mind. “Guys, I think my Lion is telling me something.”

“Yeah, mine too,” Lance echoed.

“I can feel it too,” added Pidge.

“Same here,” said Hunk.

“Then do it!” Shiro cried.

Everyone activated their Bayards simultaneously, and a blade three times the size of Voltron appeared. Shiro used the blade to slice through the length of the Galra warship, causing it to fall into the planet’s acid layer.

“Now let’s get the Taujeerians to safety,” Shiro said.

“How are we going to do that? Their booster rockets are shot,” Hunk told him.

In answer to his question, Voltron lifted the ark on its back, away from the danger of the acid mantle of the planet and into the safety of deep space.

**************************************

Back on the Castleship, the team returned to the bridge. Everyone stared in surprise as Keith entered, carrying you bridal style, fast asleep and curled up against his chest.

“Red told Y/N I was in trouble. She flew Red out to find me and Allura. She saved us,” he said softly.

Shiro in particular was perturbed to find that you had ignored his instructions and left the Castle to go with the Red Lion to rescue Keith and Allura, despite how unwell you were. Clearly, your life-bond with Keith was stronger than anyone had realised.

“I’m so sorry for leaving,” Allura apologised to the team.

“Me too. We thought we were doing the right thing,” Keith added. He looked down at you, still sleeping, and suddenly realised just how wrong he had been. He had very nearly ended up in a situation where he would never see you again, and he knew now that he couldn’t face that. Even though you drove him completely crazy, he cared about you more than he had been willing to admit to himself.

Shiro moved to take you from Keith’s arms so that you could return to your room to rest, causing him to possessively tighten his hold on you. He felt a blush rising up his neck when you snuggled closer with a soft sigh, murmuring incoherently in your sleep. Shiro looked at him knowingly, which he did his best to ignore.

“Clearly you were correct, Shiro,” the princess continued. “We are always stronger together.”  
  
“At least we learned that Zarkon isn’t tracking us through you two,” Lance replied.

“Plus, I learned that my Lion can grow armour and extend its claws like _that._ Ting!” Hunk cried happily. “Which will come in handy if we ever need to, say, I don’t know, slice up a giant steak while getting beat up. Or fight evil and save innocent people. That too. That would work.”

Shiro said, “The fact that the Red Lion came to help Keith from so far away is a vital piece of information. We now have proof that a Lion and a Paladin can, in fact, connect over a far greater distance than we realised. Which means that we finally know how Zarkon is tracking us.”

Shiro’s expression grew dark. “It’s through the Black Lion.”


	6. Jump In Losers, We're Going Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Shiro attempts to create a deeper bond with the Black Lion, Coran takes the rest of the Paladins to a swap moon, where you come up with an interesting way to hide from an overzealous space mall cop – much to Keith’s confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is based on Series 2 Episode 7: “Space Mall” - otherwise known as my second favourite episode ever of the entire show.

After a full twenty-four hours of bed rest – which Keith himself enforced, practically standing watch over you to make sure you stayed put – you felt much better. Your fever was gone, you were no longer sniffly, and your head no longer felt as if it was stuffed with cotton wool.

Coran gave you a med-scan and confirmed that you were almost back to full health. That was enough for you to leap out of bed and join the rest of the team, grateful to escape the confines of your room. Keith followed, a resigned expression on his face as you literally skipped onto the bridge.

You were definitely back to normal.

Shiro was talking to the others as you arrived on the bridge. “Okay, look. I now know for certain that Zarkon is tracking us through the Black Lion. We have to find some way to stop him.”

“How are we gonna do that?” queried Pidge.

“We’ve never had this situation before. Two Paladins battling for the same Lion,” Allura admitted.

“Well, unless we want Zarkon taking control of Voltron every time we get close, I’ll have to forge a new bond with my Lion,” Shiro said, his face set with determination. “One that’s stronger than his.”

“Well, while you’re working on that, the rest of us need to find some new teludav lenses, otherwise we won’t be able to travel via wormhole,” Coran told him.

“Is that something we have to mail order?” Hunk asked hopefully.

Keith raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Does anyone even make those anymore?”

“I don’t know,” Allura said. “Only a few Alteans could use the teludav ten thousand years ago. They may not exist anymore.”  
  
“I think I may know where we can get some,” Coran muttered, fiddling with his moustache in a way that made you think of an old-fashioned movie villain.

“Coran! You’re not suggesting going to one of those filthy swap moons!” Allura looked at him with disapproval. “The last time you went, those space pirates took you for everything you had.”

“Space pirates?” Lance asked, his expression immediately transforming from bored to interested.

“The Unilu were traders and pirates that roamed the galaxies and dealt in black market goods,” Coran explained, bring up pictures of the alien traders. “Umvy spice, By-tor water, little bottles of Infinity Vapour… Of course, you had to bargain. No one could bargain like the Unilu. Last time, I ended up giving away three quarters of my shipment of Lango in exchange for a used pogo oscillator.”

“Father was not pleased about that,” Allura reminded him, giggling at the memory.

“Well, while Coran is picking up his lenses, I’ll take you shopping for something sparkly,” Lance told her, wiggling his eyebrows flirtatiously.

“This isn’t _shopping!_ You’re not wandering around saying, _‘Ooooh, what a lovely pink hat! This is so becoming.’_ No! I can’t allow Allura to get anywhere near those filthy, lowballing Unilu hoodlums,” Coran objected.

“But I’d love something sparkly,” Allura pleaded. Somehow, the princess herself seemed to sparkle, and you knew that she was going to get her own way.

You really needed to ask her how she did that.

Coran remained unmoved. “Look, you’re the only one who can operate the Castle. You need to be resting, after all you’ve been through.”

He ignored the pout that the princess directed at him as he bossed the rest of you around. “Now, let’s just ready a pod for our mission. We need to get in, find the scaultrite lenses, and just get out.”

“Shotgun!” Lance yelled as he headed for the pod.

“What? No, you have to be in the pod bay to call shotgun,” Hunk objected as he raced after Lance. Pidge scampered along as fast as her short legs could carry her, not wanting to be left behind.

“Since when?” Lance scoffed.

“Uh, since forever? That’s shotgun etiquette! I wrote the book,” Hunk said loftily.

“While they’re doing that, I’m going to head down to the hangar. I need to strengthen my bond with the Black Lion.” Shiro nodded at Allura, Keith and yourself before taking himself to the hangar.

“You know, I wouldn’t object to something sparkly myself,” you mused. “After all, I’ve been sick. I deserve to treat myself to something special.”

Keith rolled his eyes as he followed you to the pod. “Just as long as you don’t expect _me_ to pay for it.”

The two of you bickered good-naturedly all the way to the pod.

Allura stared mournfully after everyone as she was left alone in the Castle bridge. “So what am I supposed to do now, sit around and worry all day? Hmmm? Dinner and a show?”

**************************************

“Hello? Back passengers? Can you hear me?” Coran asked.

“Oh, it’s comfy up here,” Lance mocked in a sing-song voice from the front of the pod. “Extra leg room, heated seats! Oh, man!”

“Stupid Lance. Stupid shotgun,” Hunk muttered sulkily.

You were squashed into the back of the pod with Keith, Pidge and Hunk. There was barely enough room for two people, let alone four. Keith had suggested with a smirk that if might be more comfortable for everyone if you sat on his lap, to which you’d haughtily suggested that everyone would fit better if _he_ sat on Hunk’s. The others had laughed at the disgruntled pout which appeared on his face.

He’d been making an effort to make things up to you, knowing you were hurt by his recent decision to leave the team with the princess. As a result, he’d been considerate, friendly, and even – oddly - flirtatious. While you appreciated his attempts, you still hadn’t entirely forgiven him. Your jealousy flared whenever you thought about him leaving with Allura, and you were therefore intent on making him suffer as much as possible.

“Now, these swap moons are very dangerous environments,” Coran told you seriously as the pod landed at the swap moon. “So be on your toes. No weapons or communication devices of any kind! Also, I’ve brought along some disguises.”

You and the others looked at each other warily. If Coran had arranged ‘disguises’ for all of you, it was bound to mean you were going to look completely ridiculous.

**************************************

No doubt about it. You all looked utterly preposterous. The six of you looked like cosplayers who’d made a last minute decision to attend the space version of ComicCon, and had been left with no choice but to put together costumes made from whatever rejects you could find.

Pidge looked out at the swap moon suspiciously. “Coran, this Unilu swap meet looks an awful lot like a regular mall.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It does seem to be a little cleaner than I remember. Still, be vigilant. The Unilu are cutthroat wheeler-dealers. So keep your hands on your coin satchels.”

Hunk held his out sadly. “My satchels are empty.”  
  
“Good,” Coran nodded.

Keith scowled. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“What’s wrong, Flyboy? Don’t you like shopping?” you asked, knowing full well that he hated anything of the sort.

“No.” The scowl seemed to be etched permanently on his face.

Coran continued as if Keith hadn’t spoken. “Everyone, let’s fan out. Search the area for teludav lenses. We’ll meet by the giant ticking clock in one varga. Don’t be late, and try to blend in.”

As soon as Coran’s back was turned, all of you ditched the outfits he had procured for you, and scattered in various directions, promptly forgetting about the teludav lenses in your quests for some serious space loot.

**************************************

“So, Flyboy, where to?” you asked, not really paying attention as your eyes took in the sights of the space mall. Oh boy, could you have some fun in here.  
  
“I need to see if anyone can tell me about this,” he replied, his hand on the hilt of the Galra blade that he always carried with him.

You rolled your eyes. Trust him to want to do something boring.

“Well, it’s a mall. I can practically guarantee that there will be some shoddy knife-selling alien trying to offload a set of dodgy steak knives to the unsuspecting public,” you said.

No sooner had you spoken than the two of you came across a stall where a shifty looking alien was indeed trying to convince shoppers to part with their hard-earned cash in order to walk away with the latest in intergalactic cutlery.

“Let me show you the wonderful workings of the Galasu X-90 Extreme Blade System. It slices, it dices, it kills, slaughters and skins and constantly stays razor sharp!” he proclaimed loudly. He proceeded to demonstrate the knife’s abilities, cutting through the softest fruit you had ever seen before, inexplicably, deciding to slice through a rock. You snorted derisively. Dodgy salesmen were the same the universe over.

Keith walked up to the alien. “I just had a question.”

“Fine! Whatcha got?” The alien seemed pleased at the prospect of finally unloading some of his merchandise.

“Have you ever come across something like this?” Keith placed the Galra blade on the bench in front of him. You noted that he had tied a piece of cloth around the hilt to hide the symbol etched upon it.

The alien’s eyes widened in astonishment. He snatched the blade, examining it closely. “Whoa, this craftsmanship is incredible! And is this a luxite blade? The planet they mine that from hasn’t existed in deca-phoebs. Where’d you get this?”

“Someone gave it to me,” Keith said evasively, unwilling to divulge anything further to the suspicious creature.

“Okay, that’s vague. Tell you what, I’ll give you one thousand GAC to take it off your hands.”

Keith shook his head, holding out his hand for the knife. “It’s not for sale.”  
  
“Two thousand,” the salesman pressed.

“No, thanks. Give it back.” He held out his hand expectantly.  
  
The knife seller looked at Keith. “How about this? I keep the knife and you beat it before security gets here. I know it’s stolen.”

“It’s not stolen,” Keith said flatly.

“Then tell me where you got it.”  
  
You leaned across the bench, grabbing the front of the alien’s shirt menacingly. “Listen, you slimy little twerp. He just told you that it’s not stolen, and I don’t appreciate you implying that he’s being anything less than honest. Give the knife back before I slice and dice _you_ with your own merchandise and then feed you to a pack of yalmors!”

_‘Woah, babe, you’re beautiful AND vicious. Keep this up and I might have to ask you to marry me.’_

_‘I’m not sure why you’re so flirtatious all of a sudden, Keith, but please, continue. If you’re lucky, I might forgive you in a year or so.’_

Grinning at you appreciatively, Keith snatched the knife back from the vendor and then pulled you away before you could strangle the crook. The two of you raced hand in hand through the crowded mall as the alien yelled after you.

“Wow, I thought it was only _me_ that ever annoyed you enough to threaten with violence,” Keith laughed as he ran.

You gave a huffy sniff as you gently removed your hand from his. “I didn’t appreciate his tone. Besides, he was trying to rip you off. We both know he would have made a fortune selling that blade on the black market, and I wasn’t going to let the dodgy little beast get away with it.”

“Awww, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you like me,” he teased, bumping you playfully with his shoulder.

“Don’t push it, Keith.”

“Hey, space pirates!” You turned when you heard the yell behind you, and noticed that you were being pursued – for want of a better word – by what appeared to be a space mall cop on a hover-Segway.

Grabbing Keith’s hand once again, you raced down the escalators, trying to blend into the crowd. When you noticed Space Mall Cop scanning the assembled throng for the two of you, you tried desperately to think of a way to avoid detection.

Inspiration struck as a memory of your Garrison days popped into your head. “Hey, Keith, do you trust me?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“Good.” Grabbing Keith’s face in both hands, you pulled his head down and smashed your lips onto his.

Your life-bond hummed with satisfaction.

Keith’s surprise lasted about half a second, before he felt himself responding. He automatically pulled you closer, his grip on your hips tightening even as his lips chased yours when you started to pull away. Your lips were soft and inviting, the kiss tasted like vanilla, and he felt himself getting giddy from it.

All too soon, though, you reached the bottom of the escalator and managed to untangle yourself from his embrace, much to his disappointment. Once again taking hold of his hand, you led him through the mall to try to find the others. You looked around, noting with relief that Space Mall Cop appeared to have gone somewhere else to look for trouble.

“So, what was that all about?” Keith asked, still slightly miffed that you’d called a sudden halt to what had unexpectedly made a boring shopping trip infinitely more enjoyable.

“What was what?” The inattention in your voice sent a wave of disappointment over him.

“ _That!_ On the escalator. You know… you… me…”

“Oh, that!” You waved a hand dismissively. “It was just a way to hide in plain sight.”

At the confused expression on his face, you clarified further. “Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable. So I took advantage of that fact, and it worked. Space Mall Cop looked right past us. It’s an excellent diversionary tactic. Works every time.”

“Every time?” You’d done that before? With someone else? Keith felt deflated.

“Sure. How do you think Griffin and I used to find out all the gossip at the Garrison?” Noting the time, you headed off to find the others so that you could return to the Castle.

Keith lagged behind you, and you failed to notice his crestfallen expression.

**************************************

You were waiting outside the restrooms for Keith when Hunk scurried towards you.

“Gotta hide! Gotta hide!” Hunk huffed as he grabbed Keith. “Keith! He’s right behind me!”

“Who?”

You heard a voice call out after Hunk. “Pirate Number Two! My lucky day!”

Your eyes widened. “Space Mall Cop!”

You grabbed the hands of both boys and started to run in the direction that Coran had left the pod. As you raced towards your escape, you caught up with Lance and Pidge just as they were exiting a shop selling Earth goods.

“Hold on,” the shopkeeper called to Pidge and Lance as they left with their arms laden with what looked like a game console. “With every purchase, you get a free Kaltenecker.”

“Time to get moving, guys!” Hunk hissed urgently as he ran past them.

“Security’s on our tail!” Keith shouted as he dragged you behind him.

Space Mall Cop grinned, the expression evil on his face. “There’s the rest of the crew!”

“Everyone, hop on Kaltenecker!” Lance cried.

“Did you buy a cow?” you asked your friends as you jumped on the black and white bovine, wrapping your arms around Keith’s waist as you sat behind him.

“It was free with purchase!” Pidge informed you, as if it was perfectly normal.

**************************************

“Or, how about this? One Olkari flying cube,” Coran bartered.

“You’ve got a deal!” the Unilu shopkeeper agreed.

“There he is!” Pidge pointed.

“We gotta go, Coran!” Keith called to the Altean advisor.

“I got the scaultrite lenses!” Coran informed everyone happily as he leapt aboard Kaltenecker.

“Scaultrite? Hold on a tick!” the Unilu dealer looked outraged at the realisation that he had practically given away such valuable material.

“Uh-uh! No take-backs!” Coran yelled over his shoulder.

“Get back here!” cried Space Mall Cop, stopping at the edge of the shopping complex as Kaltenecker headed towards the hangar. It was apparent that his Segway could only travel to the boundary of the space mall. “Doggone it! You better run! Don’t let me catch you in my jurisdiction again, pirates!”

“Oh, so you can’t follow us outside, huh?” Lance called back gleefully.

All of you winced as he hit his head on a low beam, flying off Kaltenecker and landing with a painful thud on the floor of the hangar.

**************************************

“We got our lenses!” Coran told Allura excitedly.

The princess beamed. “Excellent! Now, we can get the teludav up and running.”

Keith looked around, noting that one member of the team was missing. “Where’s Shiro?”

The man in question entered the Castle bridge as if summoned. Allura raised an eyebrow at him. “What did you do? Take a nap?”

“Not exactly.” Shiro turned to Lance with a puzzled expression. “Is that a cow?”

“Mm-hmm, his name is Kaltenecker,” Lance told him proudly.

“So, did you find a way to bond with your Lion?” Keith asked.

Shiro nodded. “Yes, and we need to get moving. We’re headed for the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters.”

“I’ll plot a course,” Coran replied.

“While you’re doing that, I’m gonna hook up the video game Lance and I bought,” Pidge squealed.

“Yeah! Let’s get this baby set up,” Lance said, clapping his hands together with glee.

The two howled with outrage when they realised that there was no outlet on the Castleship for them to plug the game into.

**************************************

Keith was quieter than usual at dinner, picking listlessly at the meal that Hunk had so lovingly prepared. Shoving his plate away, he gave up the pretence of eating and left the dining hall abruptly. Nobody batted an eyelid, too busy regaling Allura and Shiro with their tales of what had happened at the space mall.

You slipped away quietly, following the Red Paladin as he headed to the training deck. Clearly, whatever had upset him required him to work out his frustration by hitting things.

“Hey, Flyboy. You’ve been pretty subdued since we got back.” You caught up to him, lengthening your strides to match his. “Are you worried about heading to the Blade of Marmora base?”

“No.” He kept walking, not looking at you. Come to think of it, he hadn’t spoken to you since you’d rejoined the others.

Grabbing his hand, you pulled him to a stop. “All right, what’s going on?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, still refusing to meet your gaze.

You stood with your hands on your hips. “Keith, you’ve been sulky ever since we left the space mall. I understand that it was frustrating that you couldn’t get any answers about your blade, but honestly…”

“That’s not it!” He glared at you, then crossed his arms over his chest as he pouted. It shouldn’t have been as adorable as it was.

“Well, then what is it? What happened that got you so upset?”

He stared at you with disbelief. “You honestly don’t know?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking, now would I?” you snapped, losing patience.

“You kissed me,” he said flatly.

“Is that all?” you asked with surprise.

Keith’s eye started twitching. “Is that all? _Is that all?_ You _kissed_ me, allegedly to hide us from Space Mall Cop, which you apparently used to do on a regular basis at the Garrison with _James Griffin_ of all people, and then you acted as if _nothing happened_. What the hell am I supposed to think about that?”

“Good grief, Keith, you act as if you’ve never been kissed before.”

The blush that crept up his neck shocked you.

“Are you serious right now? With all of the attention you had at the Garrison, you honestly expect me to believe that you never kissed anyone until today?”

He blinked at you. “What are you talking about?”

You rolled your eyes. “Keith, you are so adorably clueless. Practically every female cadet – and a few of the guys - was throwing themselves at you at some point. It was almost embarrassing how desperate they were for your attention. Why do you think Lance resents you so much? He flirted his heart out with everyone and got nowhere, and you had them swooning all over you and you didn’t even try!”

He stared at you with bewilderment. “Why would I care about any of those people? They never actually cared about me. In fact, most of the time, they treated me like I was dirt. There was only _one_ cadet that I ever cared about while I was at the Garrison, but she spent all of her time with someone else because she couldn’t stand to be around me!”

“Oh.” For some reason, the admission that Keith had felt attracted to someone at the Garrison who wasn’t you hurt more than you cared to admit. “Well, I’m sorry that she never saw what an amazing person you are, Keith. But clearly, she wasn’t good enough for you.”

“You still don’t get it, do you, Y/N?”

Before you had time to process what was happening, Keith grabbed you and kissed you fiercely. He carded his fingers in your hair, and his tongue swirled in your mouth. He tasted like mint, and you were starting to feel breathless. You could feel his love, passion and desire for you enveloping you through the life-bond, and it left you simultaneously confused and elated.

Finally pulling away to catch his breath, Keith rested his forehead against yours. “And you say _I’m_ clueless,” he said softly, before pressing another quick kiss to your lips.

Letting you go as suddenly as he’d grabbed you, he continued on his way to the training deck, leaving you staring after him, your fingers pressed to your lips as a goofy grin slowly spread across your face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes, I admit it. The escalator kiss was totally stolen from the Romanogers escalator scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and I apologise for absolutely nothing :)


	7. The Sharp Knife of a Short Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You travel with Keith and Shiro to a hard-to-find base in an effort to align with the Blade of Marmora. Keith must fight to unlock the truth about his past, and you must fight the urge to interfere as he struggles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter corresponds to Series 2, Episode 8: “The Blade of Marmora”

“Coran, how soon will we get to the Blade of Marmora’s base?” Shiro asked.

Coran checked over the Castle’s console. “Based on the coordinates that Ulaz gave us, we should be there within a few doboshes.”

“I can’t wait to see it,” said Pidge, excitement in her voice. “I mean, they were able to fold space-time, and that was just at an outpost!”

Hunk put his hand on his stomach. “Mmm, the space taco. It left us too soon.” His stomach grumbled.

“Well, sure, but my point is, imagine how amazing their home base will be!” Pidge continued.

“Exactly,” drooled Hunk. “It could take any shape. Like a space jelly donut. Or long, like a space éclair. Or a space cheese blintz with a cherry sauce on top. Maybe a little dusting of powdered sugar. That’s the stars.”

“Aw, now I’m hungry for breakfast!” whined Lance.

All of Hunk’s talk about food was making you hungry again, too.

Keith scowled. “Guys, this is a serious mission. We need to focus.”  
  
 _“We need to focus,”_ Lance mocked. He automatically ducked the expected smack in the back of the head from you, so you surprised him by kicking him in the ankle instead. He hopped around, rubbing his sore ankle, while you hissed at him to behave himself.

“The base is in range,” Coran advised.  
  
Shiro nodded. “Take us in slowly.”

“That might prove the _tiniest_ bit of a challenge,” Coran replied.

Looking out of the Castle’s windows, the team saw two black holes, with a bright blue star in between them.  
  
“Is that a black hole?” you asked nervously.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Coran assured you. “It’s _two_ black holes and a giant blue star.”

“That’s not better.”

“No kidding,” Pidge added. “Just inside a black hole, the temperature is one millionth of a degree above absolute zero. But, just outside of that, it’s hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius.”

Hunk nodded solemnly. “Okay, it’s like when you try to nuke a frozen burrito in the microwave, and it comes out all scorching hot on the outside, but it’s still frozen in the middle, right?”

“Now I’m hungry for lunch!” Lance complained.  
  
Keith’s expression grew even more irritated. “Guys, _quiet!_ Coran, where’s the base located?”

The Altean zoomed the screen in on the headquarters, hidden between the black holes and the star. “In between those three deadly celestial objects.”

“The perfect defensive position,” Pidge whispered admiringly.

Allura looked grim. “Or the perfect trap.”

“Yeah, I’m with Allura,” said Hunk. “Maybe we shouldn’t, like, go in there at all?”

Keith whirled to face Hunk. “What are you talking about? We _have_ to go in! This is the whole reason we came out here! There is no other option!”

“Okay. Jeez. Calm down,” Lance said placatingly, which only had the effect of upsetting Keith further.

You went over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, chill, all right? We’re all on edge. Just try to remember that we’re all on the same side, okay?”

You felt him relax slightly under your touch, and he gave you a tight smile.

The computer beeped. Everyone turned to face it, noting that Galra script appeared on the screen.

**[Identify yourself.]**

“Open a hailing frequency, Coran,” Shiro instructed. The console beeped as Coran did as he was asked. “We are the Paladins of Voltron, sent here by Ulaz.”

There was a momentary silence as you waited for the Galra to respond. Suddenly, the characters on the screen changed.

**[Two may enter. Come unarmed.]**

The frequency closed, and everyone looked at each other.

“Why would they insist we come unarmed?” Allura asked, her voice laced with suspicion. “Shiro, this doesn’t feel right.”  
  
“We’ve come too far to turn back now,” Shiro reminded her.

“They just sent us a route to the base, but we’ll have to move quickly. Because of the solar flares, it’s only open for another varga,” Coran advised. The Castle screen highlighted the path that the Galra had sent, then showed a blinking icon on top of it. “Then, it will be closed for two quintants.”

“They’re gonna close it for two years?” Hunk asked incredulously.

“Two days,” Pidge corrected him.

“Oh.”

Lance smirked at Shiro. “So, any thoughts on who’s gonna join you on this little mission? I’m thinking things might get a little hot, so you’re gonna want someone who can stay cool.”

The Black Paladin nodded. “You’re right. Keith, you’re coming with me.”

“Wha-? Keith’s a hothead!” Lance objected. “He’s probably going to shoot first and ask questions later! And they’re not gonna be able to answer his questions because they’ll be _dead!”_

Lance leaned closer to Shiro, staring him down.

“We haven’t yet severed Zarkon’s link with the Black Lion, so it has to stay here.” Shiro put his hands on Lance’s shoulders, pushing him away lightly. “And the Red Lion can withstand the heat from that sun. So, yes, it’ll be Keith.”

“And me.” Shiro and Keith both stared at you. You quirked an eyebrow in response. “If you think for one second that you’re going down there without me, you can think again. I’m sick and tired of Keith running off and getting himself into trouble without me to keep an eye on him.”

“They said only _two_ of us can go down there,” Keith reminded you gently. For some reason, although lately he reacted aggressively when the others irritated him, he was having no trouble maintaining control over his temper when dealing with you.

You shook your head stubbornly. “You are _not_ leaving me behind again. We’re life-bonded, Keith, so whether you like it or not you are stuck with me. I’m coming with you, and that’s that.”

Shiro looked at you for another second, before nodding shortly. Keith sighed in resignation.

Coran looked at the three of you, before pretending that he’d been analysing the path to the base the entire time. “The course to the base will be quite treacherous, to say the least. You’re walking a razor’s edge between the gravitational pull of the black holes and the sun. One false move, and you’ll either be crushed into infinity or burnt to a crisp.”

Something to look forward to, then.

**************************************

The Red Lion flew towards the Blade of Marmora’s base.

Shiro looked at Keith, his gaze pensive. “Keith, is everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” Keith replied shortly, trying to concentrate on keeping Red on the flight path that the Blade of Marmora had sent to the Castle.

“You kind of blew up at everybody back there. You’ll have to control your emotions if you’re going to lead this group someday.”

You and Keith both looked at Shiro with shock. Keith chuckled mirthlessly. “Lead the group?”

“When we were stranded, I told you, if anything ever happens to me, I want you to lead Voltron.”

Keith shook his head in denial. “I thought you were just delirious with pain. Why would you make _me_ the leader?”

Shiro stared at Keith seriously. “Because I know what you’re capable of, if you can learn some self-discipline.”

“Why are we even talking about this? Nothing is gonna happen to you,” Keith protested.

Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It’s just in case. I need you to get focused. When you and Allura ran off, it put us all in jeopardy. If you’re going to be a leader, you’ve got to get your head on straight.”

Keith sighed. “I’m sorry. I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”

“I know. We all have.”

A loud crash sounded outside, causing Red to shake. Shiro grunted as an alarm started blaring. The visual aid veered to the right, and Red was suddenly being pulled towards the nearest black hole.

“We’re getting drawn in by one of the black holes!” Keith cried, trying desperately to steer Red away from the danger.

“Get us out of here!” Shiro hissed.

As Keith was busy fighting the controls, you pulled a lever on the console, engaging the Red Lion’s thrusters. It managed to push Red out of the gravitational pull of the black hole, and Keith got back onto the path that Coran had specified.

“Great job, Y/N! That was close.” Shiro gave you a grateful smile.

“Bet you’re glad that I came along now, aren’t you?”

Keith landed Red on the surface of the large rock in the centre of the gravitational field, and the three of you exited.

“There’s nothing here,” Keith said with disappointment. “This place just looks like a plain asteroid.”

Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling. A panel slid open in the rock, and a platform rose from beneath it, revealing two Blade of Marmora agents standing before you.

**************************************

You, Keith and Shiro were taken to an elevator by the two Blade operatives, who led you down to the Blade’s headquarters, deep within the asteroid. Dozens of Galra rebels stood in two rows, leading to a raised platform with a lone Galra standing on it. A holographic logo, the same as the one that was on the hilt of Keith’s dagger, blazed in the centre of the room above their heads. The three of you were led to the platform.

Keith kept a tight grip on your hand the entire time.

“I am Kolivan, leader of the Blade of Marmora,” the Galra advised.

“My name is Shiro, and this is Keith and Y/N. We are Paladins of Voltron.”

“I know who you are,” Kolivan told him.

“Then you know we were sent by one of your own,” Shiro replied.

“Ulaz was a fool to divulge this location to you,” Kolivan growled. “He had a penchant for ignoring orders and following his impulses. That’s what got him killed.”

“He gave his life to save us!” Shiro cried. “What he did brought us here today, and Voltron is ready to assist you. Are we welcome here or not?”

“You were told only two of you could enter,” Kolivan replied, his stance threatening, as he turned his eyes to stare at you.

“Keith and I are life-bonded,” you asserted boldly, returning his stare with an unflinching one of your own. You lifted your chin defiantly and stood even straighter, which added maybe half an inch to your frame. “Our lives are intertwined, which basically means that we are one entity. Where he goes, I go.”

Keith’s jaw dropped, partly dismayed at your blatant disregard for your own safety, and partly with admiration of the casual way you mentioned the apparent loophole which may have been caused by the universe deciding that the two of you belonged together.

Kolivan continued to gaze at you steadily, and you quirked an eyebrow as if daring him to throw you out. He nodded shortly. “Very well, Little One. You may stay.”

He turned his disapproving gaze to Keith. “You were told to come unarmed.”

“You also told us to identify ourselves,” Keith retorted. “The Lions are about as close as we come to an ID.”

“If anything happens, believe me, you’ll be happy you have the Red Lion on your side,” Shiro added.

“I imagine we would. However, I wasn’t referring to your beast.”

Another Blade operative approached Keith from behind, grabbing his arm and pinning it behind his back. Keith grunted, struggling, and the Blade kicked his foot out from under him. Keith crashed to the floor, quickly pinned by the Galra.

“Keith!” you cried, trying to run to his aid. You were immediately stopped by another Blade blocking your path.

A metallic sound rang out as Keith’s knife was pulled out of its sheath. The operative unwrapped its hilt to reveal the Blade of Marmora’s logo. “He has one of our blades! Who did you steal this from?” he growled menacingly.

“I didn’t! I’ve had it all my life!” Keith cried, still struggling to free himself from the Blade’s hold.

“Lies!” hissed the Galra.

Kolivan stared at Shiro. “Can you corroborate your friend’s statement? Does this blade truly belong to him?”  
  
Shiro looked at Keith apologetically. “I… I don’t know.”

“Shiro, you know me. I promise you I didn’t steal it. I’ve had this knife as long as I can remember,” Keith insisted.

The Blade operative pushed Keith’s head back to the ground. “We can’t trust them.”  
  
“I’m telling the truth,” Keith persisted, lifting his head. “I saw Ulaz had a knife like this. Tell me what it means.”

“He’s not lying!” you told Kolivan. “Believe me, I would know if he was. I’d feel it.”

Kolivan ignored you. “Our organisation is built on secrecy and trust. You should leave. Now.”

The Galra released Keith, who immediately stood. You ran to his side as Shiro approached him.

“We came here to form an alliance, but obviously we’re not welcome,” Shiro said angrily. “Come on, Keith, we’re leaving.”

“Not without some answers,” Keith protested. “Somehow, one of your knives ended up with me on planet Earth. Tell me how.”

“Your friend is right,” Kolivan told him. “It is time for you to go.”

“Where did it come from? I have to know,” Keith continued.

“You seek knowledge? There is only one way to attain knowledge here,” Kolivan said.

In desperation, Keith agreed without hesitation. “How? I’ll do it!”

“The trials of Marmora. Should you survive, you may keep the blade and its secrets will be revealed.”  
  
“ _Survive?_ Keith, this is crazy,” you said, tugging on his arm. Keith’s safety was infinitely more important to you than recruiting new allies to fight Zarkon. “If they’re not going to help us, let’s get out of here.”

Keith shook his head stubbornly, shaking himself loose from your grasp. “I’m not going anywhere. I have to do this.”

You looked at Shiro pleadingly, who returned your gaze with a helpless one of his own. He knew how stubborn Keith was. If he had made up his mind to stay, nothing would persuade him to change it.

“Antok, give the boy the blade,” Kolivan instructed the other Galra.

Antok handed the knife to Keith. “We will meet again.”

“Can’t wait,” Keith quipped.

Kolivan looked at Keith seriously. “These trials result in one of two things: Knowledge, or death.”

**************************************

Keith, now dressed in a dark Blade of Marmora suit, stood before you. Without warning, you threw your arms around him, hugging him fiercely. You held him slightly longer than necessary, reluctant to let him go. Pressing a kiss to his cheek, you whispered, “Good luck.”

Keith’s ears burned as he avoided the gazes of Shiro and Kolivan. Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and entered the room.

A Blade operative rose out of the ground, and stared implacably at him. “Surrender the blade. You cannot win.”

Keith immediately struck out at the Galra, who moved out of the way of his knife and sliced his shoulder with his sword. Keith cried out in pain, yet stubbornly remained on his feet. The two struck out at each other with fists and feet, blades flying.

You chewed your nails nervously as you and Shiro watched anxiously on the screen before you. “Come on, Keith,” Shiro muttered.

Keith was on his knees, the Blade’s sword at his throat. “Surrender the blade and the pain will cease.”

“I won’t quit,” Keith ground out.  
  
“Then the pain continues.” The Blade operative removed the sword, standing back. “You are not meant to go through that door.”

Naturally, Keith immediately went through it.

Two panels opened, revealing a pair of Blades who immediately proceeded to attack.

“This is _not_ a fair fight!” Shiro was outraged.

“Nor is taking on the Galra, yet that is the fight we face,” Kolivan intoned.

Keith fell to his knees, a sword at his neck as the Blades defeated him. “Surrender the blade and the pain will cease.”  
  
Keith’s face contorted in a snarl of rage. “Never!”

The Blade stepped aside. “You are not meant to go through that door,” he said, pointing to the next door.

Three panels opened, and three Blades of Marmora stepped out. Keith stood up, and they charged.

Keith lost fight after fight, and still he kept going, each time being told he was not meant to go through the next door, and yet continuing on regardless. Every door he went through revealed more Blade agents.

You felt every blow against him, and wondered how he could keep standing. But you knew the answer. The stubborn streak in him meant that he would never give up until he had no fight left in him.

Shiro lost patience when seven panels opened to reveal seven Blades awaiting Keith. “How long does this go on?”

Kolivan shrugged. “Sometimes, the greatest challenge is knowing when to stop.”

“He’ll never quit,” you said through clenched teeth. Your eyes filled with tears of frustration.

Kolivan glanced at you. “One way or another, Little One, this will end. Knowledge or death.”

With another yell, Keith charged forwards.

**************************************

Keith was visibly shaking, breathing heavily and holding his shoulder, which was obviously more painful than he would ever admit to the Blades. He faced the seven Blades as they stepped off their panels. His eyes narrowed, and he charged forward, throwing his knife past them and into the panel behind them to prevent it from closing. He fought them unarmed. When a Blade member threw him, he slid across the floor with a smirk as he grabbed his knife and slipped through the still open panel.

“Keith!” you yelled, even though you knew he couldn’t hear you.

“Patience, Little One,” Kolivan told you. You rolled your eyes. You weren’t _that_ short; it’s not as if you were Pidge. Just because you were a midget in comparison to the gargantuan Galra standing beside you, it didn’t mean that he had to be a smart alec and give you a stupid nickname.

A door opened, and Keith stepped out into another room, hunched over and holding his injured shoulder.

“Guess I really wasn’t supposed to go through that door,” he gasped.

His steps slowed, his vision blurring as he started to see double. He groaned and collapsed sideways. A shadow passed over him and he looked up, blinking as a blurred form stood before him, offering a hand to help him up.

“Hey, man. You did it.”

Keith smiled weakly, then grimaced. “Shiro?”

Reaching out, he took Shiro’s hand, and was pulled to his feet by his injured arm.

“Kolivan told me you lasted longer than anyone ever has in those battles,” Shiro said proudly. “You don’t have to keep this up.”

Keith frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Just give them the knife and let’s get out of here,” you smiled. He turned as you spoke, having not noticed you before.

“I can’t just give it to them, Y/N,” Keith said, shaking his head.

**************************************

You and Shiro stood in front of a screen, watching yourselves in front of Keith.

“Is that a hologram?” Shiro asked.

“His suit has the ability to create a virtual mindscape, reflecting its wearer’s greatest hopes and fears,” Kolivan replied. “And at this moment, your friend desperately wants to see both of you.”

**************************************

“What is it with you and that _thing?”_ you hissed angrily.

“It’s the only connection I have to my past. It’s my chance to learn who I really am.” He had to make you understand how important this was to him. Surely you could understand why he needed to know the truth.

Shiro said, “You know exactly who you are. A Paladin of Voltron. We’re all the family you need.”

Keith looked upset. “Shiro, you’re like a brother to me… and Y/N, you have to know how much you mean to me… but I have to do this.”

“No, you don’t. So just give them the knife,” you begged, tears sliding down your face.

“I can’t do that,” he told you firmly. You weren’t going to break him. He couldn’t let you break him.

“Just give up the knife, Keith!” Shiro shouted. “You’re only thinking of yourself, as usual!”

Keith’s eyes widened in shock. He looked away from both of you, shame colouring his face. “I’ve made my choice.”

“Then you’ve chosen to be alone,” Shiro said viciously, walking away.

Your lower lip trembled as you stared at Keith. “Why can’t I ever be enough for you, Keith? Why do you always choose everything except me?”

You burst into tears and ran off in the same direction as Shiro.

Keith looked down at the knife in his hand, then back up at your retreating figures. “Y/N! Shiro! Wait!”

He ran after you, but you both kept walking away, either not hearing him or choosing to ignore him. Suddenly, a bright light engulfed the two of you. Keith shielded his eyes from the glare, and when the light faded, he found himself alone in his desert shack. He looked around, startled by a loud crash.

Opening the door to go outside, he was startled by a voice behind him.

“Keith…”

He turned around and gasped. “Dad?”

‘You’re home, son.”  
  
There was another loud crash, and Keith looked over at the window, which was covered by a blanket. “What’s going on outside?”

“Don’t worry about that,” his father said. “We’ll be fine as long as we stay in here. Don’t you wanna catch up?”

Keith frowned, a look of distress crossing his face. “Of course I do.”

His dad sighed. “Son, so many years have passed. I have so much to tell you.”

Yet another loud crash, and Keith once again turned to face the window. “What _is_ that?”

“Everything is fine,” his dad told him.

Keith pulled the blanket off the window and gasped. Outside, a Galra warship attacked the desert, destroying everything in its path. He could hear people screaming as the Red Lion sat immobile on the top of a cliff.

“Dad, I-I’m sorry. I gotta go. There’s people that need me out there.”

His father was holding his knife. “Don’t you wanna know about where you came from? Your mother gave it to me.”

“Mom?” Keith’s voice broke.

Another crash, followed by rumbling. The screaming was closer now. The Galra warship fired again on the desert, as lines of Galra sentries marched towards the cabin.

His father smirked. “She’ll be here soon.”

**************************************

You were struggling to escape Antok’s grip. The enormous Galra had a firm hold of you, preventing you from barging into the room where Keith lay on the ground, seemingly unconscious, while he grunted and writhed as if he was in the middle of a nightmare.

“Let me go!” you yelled. “He needs me! Let me in there!”

“He must do this alone, Little One,” Kolivan said, unmoved by your agitation.

“You need to get him out of there,” Shiro demanded.

“He can decide when to leave,” Kolivan responded tonelessly.

Shiro threw his hands out, his frustration clear. “You’re messing with his mind.”

“You’re going to kill him!” you shrieked, tears of anguish streaming down your face as you watched the agony that Keith was going through. You could feel his pain through your life-bond, and it was tearing you apart.

Kolivan shrugged. “Knowledge or death.”

Shiro gritted his teeth and started to walk away. “I’m calling this off.”

Two Blade members blocked his way.

**************************************

“You gotta tell me, Dad,” Keith begged. “I have to know. Where did the knife come from? What does it mean?”

“Your mother is almost here.” His father looked down at the knife, then looked up at Keith. “She’ll tell you everything.”

A loud explosion sounded outside, and light flashed through the windows.  
  
“I can’t wait around anymore. I have to go.” Keith walked towards the door, gripping the knob as he prepared to turn it.

“If you go out that door, you’ll never find out who you are,” his father warned him.

Keith froze, his hand still on the door. After a moment, he looked down. Another explosion went off, light once again flaring inside the cabin. He looked over his shoulder.

“Goodbye, Dad.”

He opened the door and left.

**************************************

The Red Lion’s eyes flared a blazing yellow, and suddenly it roared before firing on the base.

**************************************

The trial room shook, the screens showing only static, as alarms begain blaring. Kolivan stared at the screen, along with Shiro, who was restrained by two Blade members, and yourself, still in Antok’s grip.

Another Blade member ran in. “The Red Lion is attacking the base! It’s trying to break through!”

Red fired once again.

“It has a link with Keith,” Shiro told them. “It knows when he’s in danger. It’s coming for him.”

Debris began collapsing in the room. Shiro elbowed one of the Galra holding him, then ducked out of the grip of the second as he ran from the room. The Blades chased after him.

You stomped on Antok’s foot, and he loosened his hold on you, more from surprise than any real pain. You took advantage of his momentary lapse to escape his grasp and race after Shiro.

You caught up to him just as he entered the room where Keith was. Shiro helped him to his feet, and you moved to his other side, putting your arm around his waist to support him as he stood up rather unsteadily. He had his injured arm around Shiro’s shoulders, and you carefully placed his other arm around yours. He loosely held his knife in his left hand.

“Keith, are you okay?” you asked him gently, your concern washing over him.

“Stop what you’re doing!” Kolivan demanded.

“What are you talking about? What’s going on?” Keith asked, confused.

“Call off your beast!” Kolivan snarled.

“Move out of the way! We’re leaving!” Shiro told him.

“You’re not leaving with that blade,” Kolivan said with a note of finality in his voice. “It does not belong to you. You failed to awaken it!”

“What does that mean?” Keith asked once again.

Antok pulled out a sword and charged. “Give up the blade!”

Shiro let go of Keith, activating his prosthetic arm and charging forward to meet Antok’s strike.

“Wait!” Keith’s voice rang out. “Just take the knife!”

He held the knife out in front of him hilt first. Shiro deactivated his arm, and Antok lowered his blade, both turning to look at Keith.

You frowned, still holding him. “Keith, are you sure? You fought so hard to get to this point.”

Keith sighed heavily. “It doesn’t matter where I come from. I know who I am. We all need to work together to defeat Zarkon. And if that means I give up this knife, fine. Take it.”

He continued to hold the knife out towards Kolivan. Suddenly, the insignia on the blade glowed faintly, before the light became a blinding white, shielding both of you from view.

Antok gasped. “You’ve awoken the blade!”

The knife glowed brightly, before transforming into a long, curved sword. Both you and Keith stared at it, wide eyed, as it revealed itself to all.

Kolivan stood in front of him. “The only way this is possible is if Galra blood runs through your veins.”

You felt the moment Keith’s world shattered.

**************************************

The Red Lion landed in the hangar of the Castleship. The rest of the team was waiting for you all. They were more than a little startled when Kolivan’s mask vanished to reveal him as a Galra.

He pulled his hood down and knelt in front of Allura, his head bowed in submission. “Princess Allura, it’s good to see that the rumours are true. You’re still alive after all these years.”

“So is Zarkon,” she replied grimly. “Can we consider you our ally in the fight against him?”

“Yes, but we have little time to discuss this. I just received word from our spy inside the Galran hierarchy. They have become aware of our presence, so the timetable for our plan has been moved up.”

“How soon do we need to begin?” Shiro asked.

Kolivan looked at all of you. “Now.”


	8. Sometimes It Just Takes Guts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and the others split up to gather resources for a showdown with Zarkon, while Hunk and Keith travel into the belly of a planet-devouring creature to obtain the necessary material to repair the teludav. You surprise everyone – especially Keith – when the time comes to say goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter relates to Series 2 Episode 9: “The Belly of the Weblum”

Keith stood to one side of the Castle bridge, away from where Kolivan was speaking with Allura and the others, no longer feeling as if he had a right to be part of the group. He was part Galra, and he suddenly understood why he had never really fit in anywhere. It was because he didn’t belong. He really, truly, did not belong here.

He jumped as a hand touched his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw you standing next to him, a look of concern on your face. “Hey, you okay?”

He shrugged. “Just… I don’t know. I guess finding out who I really am explains why nobody likes me.”

You gave an indelicate snort. “Dude, seriously, we didn’t like you _before_ we found out you were only half-human.”

Despite himself, he gave a small smile at your teasing. At least _you_ weren’t treating him any differently. If anything, you seemed to have become even fonder of him. Strange as it sounded, finding out that Keith was half-Galra only seemed to make you more inclined to make an effort to get along with him – more than discovering that you were life-bonded to him ever had.

The others … well, for the most part they didn’t seem to be concerned that they had a half-human, half-evil alien on board. The revelation of his true heritage didn’t seem to bother them at all.

The princess, however…

“Keith, seriously, this doesn’t change anything. Don’t worry. Everything will work out.” You gave him a reassuring smile before you wrapped him in a hug, and he found himself desperately hoping that you were right.

**************************************

Hunk’s snoring could be heard throughout the Castle. With a gasp, he tipped over, waking himself up as he fell. “What? What’d I miss?”

Lance replied sarcastically, “Oh, nothing important. We’ve just figured out a way to defeat Zarkon.”

Hunk blinked. “Really? I dozed for ten minutes, and you guys figured out how to defeat the forces of evil?”

Pidge snorted. “You’ve been asleep for three hours.”

Shiro and Kolivan were standing in front of a projection of Zarkon’s command ship. Shiro said, “I think we’ve got something here. It’s dangerous and there are a lot of moving parts, but if we can coordinate everything just right, then –”

“Zarkon’s reign will be at an end, and the savagery that’s poisoned our universe can finally be cleansed,” Kolivan concluded. “You’ve done it, Shiro.”

“We did it together,” the Black Paladin smiled. He and Kolivan clasped each other’s arms in congratulation.

“As long as we all stick to the plan, it should work,” Allura said critically.

“It will work,” Kolivan assured her. “Perhaps, then, you’ll learn that not all Galra are as bad as Zarkon.”

“I hope not.” Allura glanced towards Keith, who was standing next to you, silently staring at the base of the projector. She frowned when she noticed that your fingers were intertwined with Keith’s, your thumb rubbing the back of his hand in an absentminded gesture of comfort.

Antok nodded towards the team. “Ulaz was right to trust you all.”

“He sacrificed everything to bring us together,” Shiro said softly. “Let’s honour him by taking down Zarkon.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Hunk asked, as he, Pidge and Lance approached the projection.

Lance ran to the centre of the group, acting out various parts using exaggerated movements. “The plan is amazing! First, we infect Zarkon’s ship with a virus. Then, we make an extra-large wormhole and lure Zarkon inside of it, zapping it a bajillion light years away. Then when he pops out on the other side, all like, _‘Oh, why doesn’t my ship work?’_ Voltron kicks his butt! Pew, pew, pew! Womp, womp, womp! Huh! Hi-yah!”

Lance jumped into a karate pose. You burst out laughing at his ridiculous antics, and even Keith had a small smile on his face.

Lance continued his enthusiastic explanation. In a deep voice, he intoned, _“ ‘I’ll form the head!’_ That’s what you say, Shiro. Yeah, yeah. Yeah! We won for all time!”

He threw his arms up in a victory pose, pretending to hear fanfare and applause. You golf-clapped politely at his performance, and he bowed low in front of you, throwing you a wink as he did so. Keith growled possessively, which only caused Lance’s grin to widen.

“Wow. So, this is it.” Hunk sounded very unhappy about this.

“I guess the only question is, when do we strike?” Pidge asked seriously.

Coran pulled up an interface and pressed a few buttons, and the projector showed the inner workings of a teludav. “As soon as we build a teludav big enough to wormhole Zarkon’s ship,” he answered Pidge.

“Oh, man. The teludav again? Does that mean we need more scaultrite?” Hunk whined.

“That’s just one of the many things we’ll need,” Allura told him.

Hunk looked hopeful. “Am I, uh… Am I sensing a trip back to the space mall here?”

“I’m afraid not,” Coran said. “This is going to take a lot more scaultrite that we can find at an Unilu shop. For this plan to succeed, we’re going to need to split up. We all have a task to do. Keith, Hunk, you’ll be in charge of getting the scaultrite. If any one of us fails, the entire plan fails.”

**************************************

The team was in the hangar of the Yellow Lion, saying their goodbyes as each prepared to go their separate ways. Hunk and Keith were to try and find a creature that Coran had told you made scaultrite in its stomach – _Gross_ , you had gagged – while you were travelling with Shiro, Pidge and Lance to try and free a prisoner being held by the Galra. Meanwhile, Coran was to make his way to Olkarion to enlist their aid in building a teludav large enough to create a wormhole to rid you of Zarkon’s ship, and Allura was to return to the Balmera in an attempt to obtain a new crystal which would be large enough to power the teludav.

Keith and Shiro clasped hands before embracing each other in a hug. You realised that Shiro was really the only person that Keith allowed to touch him without being awkward about it, although it seemed like he was finally beginning to accept physical contact from you as well.

At least, this time when you hugged him, he immediately hugged you back.

You tried not to laugh when you noticed that Pidge and Hunk were both bawling as they shook each other’s hands.

You and Keith separated, and he caught Allura’s gaze. She looked away quickly, but not before you both noticed her expression change to one of utter contempt. You felt Keith wince mentally, and your heart hurt for him. You suddenly felt furious at the Altean princess.

After saying their goodbyes to the rest of the team, Hunk and Keith headed into the Yellow Lion. Hunk looked back at all of you with a nervous smile on his face, while Keith stared at the ground as if he was ashamed.

You glanced over at Allura, who still had a look of absolute hatred on her face whenever she looked at Keith, which contrasted sharply with the friendly gaze she directed at Hunk. The pain she was causing the Red Paladin due to her prejudice against the Galra enraged you once again, and as usual when you were seething with anger, you acted before you had totally thought things through.

“Keith, wait!”

Keith turned around just as you raced up the Yellow Lion’s ramp, throwing your arms around his neck and hugging him to you tightly. He returned your embrace, holding you to him as he buried his face in your neck, trying to keep his pain hidden from the others.

“Stay safe, okay? Don’t do anything stupid out there,” you said softly.

“I’ll try,” he whispered back. “Take care of Shiro for me.”

A snort from you. “ _Of course_ you’re more worried about Shiro than you are about me.”

“I know Shiro is going to take care of you without me having to ask it of him. You both mean too much to me; I-I can’t lose either of you.” His voice was muffled as he spoke into your neck, and he tightened his grip on you slightly, as if he was afraid to let you go.

With a soft sigh, you started to move away from him, but stopped to stare deeply into his violet-grey eyes. They were so full of hurt and pain and self-loathing, and you desperately wanted to remove those feelings. Keith deserved to be happy.

Before he realised what was happening, you pulled his face down to yours and kissed him passionately. You poured all of your friendship and affection – and yes, _love,_ you finally admitted – into that kiss. You didn’t care that the rest of the team was staring at you, mouths agape, as you declared to everyone present just how you felt about Keith Kogane.

Your life-bond practically sang with triumph.

Eventually you pulled away, holding his face in your hands. “I mean it, Keith. You come back safe to me, do you understand?”

His expression slightly dazed, Keith nodded slowly. You pressed another soft kiss to his lips before heading back down to the others.

“Keep him safe, Hunk. If anything happens to him, I’m holding you responsible,” you called over your shoulder.

Hunk gulped, then nodded before racing inside the Yellow Lion. Keith followed him, giving you a soft smile as the hatch closed behind him.

With a roar, the Yellow Lion left the Castle, entering the wormhole that had been created.

**************************************

“Sooooooo… what was _that_ all about?” Pidge asked you, petting one of the space mice that inhabited the Castle.

“Just letting Keith know that absolutely nothing has changed.” You gave a pointed look at the princess. “He’s still a part of this team, and we still care about him.”

“Some of us care more than others, I think,” Shiro said, grinning at you. You shoved him playfully, causing his grin to widen.

Lance looked speculatively at Allura. He seemed emboldened by your public embrace of the Red Paladin, and decided to try his luck with the princess. “So, uh, how about a kiss for good luck?”

He leaned forward, eyes closed, making exaggerated kissing sounds as he puckered up towards Allura. Without a word, Coran picked up Platt, the fat space mouse that Pidge had been holding, carrying it towards Lance and pressing it to his lips. Lance hummed contentedly, before opening his eyes and screaming in disgust when he realised what was happening.

Lance was still wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his Paladin outfit as he climbed the Blue Lion’s ramp. Pidge was grinning wildly as she waved back at Allura and Coran. Shiro smiled fondly at the Alteans, while you just gave a short nod. You were still upset with Allura’s treatment of Keith, but it would do no good to treat her the same way.

The Blue Lion flew out of the Castle, entering the wormhole that Allura had created.

**************************************

“So why does Allura get to take a leisurely visit to the Balmera while we have to fly into the belly of a giant space worm to get scaultrite?” Hunk asked plaintively.

“You heard Coran. Building a huge teludav isn’t easy. Everyone has a job to do and this is ours,” Keith replied impatiently.

“But I always get the worst jobs,” Hunk complained. “Go to a Galra-occupied planet to get my Lion. Go to a Galra-occupied Balmera to get a crystal. Go into the belly of a beast with the only Galra alien team member.”

“I’m not an alien,” Keith said flatly.

“Well, you’re kind of an alien. You’re way more alien than me. You’re at least _some_ alien. I’m-I’m none alien.”

Keith sighed as he moved towards the front of the cockpit. “Let’s just concentrate on the job here.”

Hunk nodded. “Yeah. Was-was your mom the alien? Your grandpa? How Galra _are_ you?”

“I don’t know,” he replied shortly.

“Did the Blade of Marmora, like, teach you the secret handshake, or something?” Hunk pressed.

Keith sounded frustrated. “No. No one said anything.”

“The Blade of Marmora… they’re real tight-lipped, aren’t they? I get that your society is secret, but is _everything_ a secret?”

“Okay, look, it’s bad enough that Allura hates me now. Can you just lay off?” Keith snapped, his temper once again getting the better of him.

“Allura doesn’t hate you. You just need to give her time to accept the fact that you’re Galra, the race that destroyed her entire planet and all of her people.” Hunk frowned and blinked. “Yeah, she might hate you a little bit.”

Keith sighed again. “Let’s just watch the video Coran uploaded and stay on task. We need to find out how to collect this stuff.”

Hunk tapped a button on the Yellow Lion’s console, bringing up the video screen. It glitched at first, before settling onto the image of a much younger-looking Coran. Cheerful music played in the background.

**[Hello, brave Altean]** greeted the image of Coran.

Hunk grinned, trying desperately to hold back his laughter. “No way. Is that Coran?”

**[So, you’re about to go into the belly of a weblum to harvest scaultrite. Good for you!]** Recorded Coran pointed to his right, where a screen appeared showing the various items he began describing. **[Scaultrite is an important substance, with thousands of commercial and industrial uses, including fabrication foam, insect night vision goggles, teludav – ]** Static sounded before the recording continued. **[- anti-fungal klanmüirl lotion and other such lubricants.]**

Keith stared at the screen. “What’s wrong with the video?”

Hunk shrugged. “It’s ten thousand years old. It’s probably corroded.” He tapped a few buttons on the console and the static faded.

**[I could go on for days]** Coran continued. **[But you’ve got a weblum to enter and some scaultrite to collect.]**

Coran’s image continued to babble as a cartoon weblum entered the frame, pretending to eat various planets as the video kept playing. The _om nom nom_ sounds of the cartoon almost distracted the boys from the thought of just how serious their mission was.

**[As you probably remember from school, the weblum is an enormous creature and an integral part of keeping our universe functioning. It survives off of the – _[Static]_ – left over from dead planets. It then reconverts the Quintessence remnants by – _[Static]_ – becoming the building blocks of new solar systems. Incredible, isn’t it? _[Static].]_**

Keith and Hunk looked at each other nervously before letting out simultaneous whimpers.

**[Of course, these are no gentle giants]** Coran kept on talking. **[They’re actually giants that are quite deadly, which leads to _[Distorted audio]._ Rule number one. It’s an important one, so listen closely. Stay away from its _– [Static]._ You got that?]**

“No. No, I didn’t,” Hunk said timidly.

**[It’s like a rhyme. Say it with me. _[Distorted]_ Stay away from its – _[Static].]_**

“Oh, come on!” Hunk yelled.

**[Other things to remember include avoiding the poisonous – _[Static] –_ eye sockets – _[Static] –_ could lead to certain death!]**

“Whoa. What are those?” Hunk pointed out of the Yellow Lion’s windows at what appeared to be a debris field.

“They look like… dead planets,” Keith said softly.

Hunk’s brow furrowed as he studied the comm screen. “That’s strange. The charts I’m looking at show these planets should still be thriving. Wow. What do you think happened to them? Asteroid strike?”

Keith got a glimpse of a large creature floating outside. “Something tells me they died an unnatural death.”

“Look!” Hunk pointed at the creature.

“Guess that ancient Altean weblum tracker put us right on the money,” Keith muttered.

Hunk started panicking. “We gotta get out of here! We haven’t watched the entire video yet! We don’t know what to do!”

“We’re not leaving,” Keith told him. “You fly, keep our distance. I’ll skim through the video.”

He fast-forwarded the recording for a few seconds as Hunk steered the Yellow Lion towards the front of the beast.

**[So, you’ve made it into the weblum’s first stomach!]** Coran exclaimed cheerfully.

“Rewind!” demanded Hunk.

“I know!” cried Keith, trying desperately to go back. He wound back the video and restarted it at what he hoped was the right part.

**[So, you’ve identified a weblum. Great! Now, remember rule number one. Stay away from its face.]**

“Wait, _that’s_ rule number one? We broke rule number one!” Hunk’s panic increased as the weblum opened its mouth and began pulling in objects as if it was a mobile black hole. “Oh, no! What’s it doing?”

“Get us out of the way, _now!”_ Keith yelled.

The weblum fired a large beam of energy towards them, which the Yellow Lion managed to dodge. Hunk grunted as the beam began to follow them, doing his best to keep the Lion out of its range of fire. Another beam came much closer to hitting them.

**[The weblum’s natural defense – _[Static] –_ venomous laser, deadly acid – _[Static] -_ total annihilation – _[Static] –_ death monster – _[Static]…”_ **After several seconds of static, it cleared and the cartoon weblum was back on screen. **“…to find its blind spot on the back of its neck, just below the gills.]**

The cartoon weblum cheerfully advised, **[That’s your way inside! If I can’t see ya, I can’t kill ya!]**

The Yellow Lion began beeping rapidly. Hunk pulled the control levers to change course to head to the back of the weblum’s neck. Yellow descended to land on the creature, but suddenly began to bounce back and forth between the spikes on its back. It crashed into one of the spikes, hitting the weblum hard. Both boys groaned, but the Yellow Lion managed to right itself on its feet, skidding backwards. Hunk activated the upgraded claws that he had recently discovered, as well as the Lion’s armour to secure their position on the back of the weblum.

“We’re attached to its back, in its blind spot,” he told Keith.

“Good. We’re going in.”

“Wait, what do we do when we’re inside the beast?” Hunk asked.

Video Coran spoke once more. **[A quick recap of what to do when you’re inside the beast. One, avoid things that want to kill you. Two, get to the third stomach and find the scaultrite gland. Three, activate the weblum’s defense mechanisms and collect the excess material from the gland. That’s the scaultrite!]**

“Seems simple enough,” Keith deadpanned.

“Seems under-explained,” Hunk muttered.

“Come on,” Keith said.

Hunk followed him with a sigh. Both exited the Lion, but Hunk hit the ground and overbalanced, beginning to spin as his jetpack activated and increased his momentum. He managed to right himself, and together he and Keith travelled to the weblum’s gills.

With a quick nod to each other, they headed inside the creature.

**************************************

Inside the weblum, Hunk stood on a bubble which immediately popped underneath him. He lifted up his foot, revealing a mucus-like substance clinging to the bottom of his boot. He made a face which showed his distaste. “Uh, yuck! What am I standing on? A mucus pocket? I do not like mucus! And is that steaming stomach acid? Lookit, right over there. Oh, man, I really hope I don’t see any blood.”

Keith saw the slight greenish tinge on Hunk’s face. “Hunk! Knock it off. You’re freaking yourself out.”

“No, standing inches away from a pus-bubble is freaking me out,” Hunk corrected him. He stomped on the pus-bubble, as if proving his point. The substance inside the bubble hit the ground and immediately began to sizzle, causing him to take several steps backward and cry out with disgust.

“Look, we’re inside a disgusting worm,” Keith reminded him. “There’s no way to sugar-coat it. We’re gonna need that big brain of yours if we want to make it through. Will you be all right?”

Hunk continued groaning, and Keith practically shook him. “I _said,_ will you be all right?”

“Uh… okay, okay.” Hunk inhaled deeply, seeming to find the action calming. “I’ll be okay.”

“Good. I gotta be able to count on you.” Keith put a hand on Hunk’s back and gave him a small pat before starting to walk away. “Besides, no one knows an explosive digestive tract like you.”

Hunk tilted his head to the side, blinking several times, before shaking his head as if to clear it. “Wait, wait, wait. Did you just make a joke?” He chuckled. “Seriously, that was a joke, wasn’t it? You’re saying I throw up a lot. I get it. It’s funny.” He laughed again. “I do. Wow. Galra Keith is _way_ funnier than regular Keith.”

“Okay, we need to find a way around the stomach acid,” Keith said, acting as if Hunk hadn’t spoken.

Strange creatures began to enter the stomach through various holes in the weblum’s body. “What are these things?” Keith asked with a frown.

“Uh… Uh… I don’t know. Maybe they’re bacteria? Uh… Oh…” Hunk paused as two of the creatures landed on his helmet with a squeak, while another landed on one of his hands. “Wait, wait, wait. They seem friendly. Maybe they’re good bacteria. They like me. They’re…” He chuckled. “They’re tickling me.”

The expression on his face changed as he heard a hissing sound. “Wait, that’s not tickling! That’s hot acid!” Hunk screamed as he threw the creatures off him. “They want to kill us! They want to kill us!”

He and Keith both summoned their Bayards as the creatures surrounded them.

“I think they’re part of the creature’s digestive system! They’re trying to break down the food, and we’re the food!” Hunk’s voice was higher than usual from the excitement.

Keith grunted as he sliced through several of the creatures with his Bayard. Hunk fired off several shots, which caused residue from one of the creatures to splatter across his visor, effectively blinding him.

“I can’t see anything!” he groaned. He deactivated his Bayard, stumbling backwards until his back hit the wall. With a short cry, he was pulled through the wall to the other side.

“Hunk!” Keith yelled.

“I’m here, surrounded by blood,” came the muffled reply. “I hate blood!”

“You’ve gotta find a way out of the circulatory system,” Keith called to him, as he swung again with his Bayard. The creatures backed him up to a ledge over a pool of stomach acid. “Hunk! I’m outnumbered here! Meet me in the third stomach!”

_‘Wherever you are, babe, I hope you’re having a better time than I am,’_ Keith thought at you.

_‘Keith, you’ve only been gone a couple of hours. How much trouble could you be in already?’_ Your responding thought was tinged with exasperation.

_‘Oh, not much. Just nearly got blasted to death before we even made it inside this stupid creature, then nearly got digested by bacteria things that thought we were food, then I got separated from Hunk, and now I’m about to fall into a pit of stomach acid. It could happen to anybody. No big deal.’_

_‘KEITH!’_ Oh, great. Now you were _really_ mad at him. He should have just taken his chances with the bacteria. _‘I swear to God… If you make it back to the Castle alive, I am going to kill you.’_

He sent a mental grin with his reply. _‘Looking forward to it.’_

Keith put his Bayard away, before running for the edge of the ledge and diving over it. The creatures attempted to follow him, but stopped before they were submerged in the stomach acid. An alarm sounded in Keith’s suit, and he reached up to turn it off.

“Gotta get out of this acid,” he muttered to himself. With a yelp, he fell straight down as he exited the weblum’s stomach. As he fell into the next chamber, he looked over to see a transportation pod which had been absorbed into the stomach lining of the weblum. Activating his jetpack, he flew towards the vehicle and noticed someone inside. He summoned his Bayard once more and sliced through the parts of the weblum which were keeping the pod shut, then pulled back ready to strike another time.

“Don’t move,” he warned the person inside. “I’m here to help.”

Thrusting the blade through the glass, he cut a hole large enough to pull the person out. He offered them a hand and pulled them out, noticing the insignia on their shoulder as he did so. Shoving the stranger past him, he reached down and stole the blaster from their belt in the process. They turned just in time for Keith to point the blaster at them, his eyes narrowed. “You’re Galra.”

The stranger brought up a projection from their wrist comm, typing out a sequence just as more of the bacteria creatures began to emerge from the weblum’s stomach walls again, squeaking as they started to form one large group above him.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked in alarm. The pod began to flash red as an alarm blared, and his eyes widened in understanding. “You’re turning this ship into a bomb.”

Keith and the stranger jumped off the pod, using their jetpacks to propel themselves away as the creatures began to surround it. The pod exploded, and Keith summoned his shield to protect himself and the Galra from the debris.

Both of them fell through the walls of the weblum, into a new part of the creature. Keith groaned, starting to push himself up, when the sound of running footsteps caught his attention. The stranger tackled him, firing off a shot which went wild. Both of them rolled to their knees, sitting up with the stranger pointing their blaster at Keith. They fired off several shots, causing Keith to activate his shield, but the shots went over his shoulder, destroying the bacteria which were approaching from behind.

Deactivating his shield, Keith said grudgingly, “I guess you can keep your weapon.”

**************************************

After what felt like hours, Keith and the strange Galra entered another part of the weblum, finding Hunk already there.

“Keith! Keith, you made it! We both made it!” Hunk stopped, looking at the stranger who was with the other Paladin. “Who is this?”

“Someone I found. He doesn’t talk much. Also, he’s Galra.”

“What, do you guys all know each other?” Hunk chuckled, ignoring the displeased look on Keith’s face. “Are you sure we should be rescuing a Galra soldier right now?”

“We’re Paladins of Voltron. We can’t just leave people to die, even if they _are_ Galra,” Keith said impatiently. “Now, come on. Let’s get what we came for and get out.”

Hunk’s expression grew concerned. “Okay, well that – that might be a problem, too. The scaultrite gland somehow secretes mucus, or saliva, or something gross, which becomes cyrstallised. The only problem is, I think that we have to trigger the weblum’s defense mechanism.”

A distant rumbling was heard, and more of the bacteria creatures began to invade from the surrounding walls.

“Argh! Not again!” Keith groaned.

The rumbling increased, and groups of the creatures began attacking as both boys dodged. Keith managed to slice his way through a large group, cutting them off from the centre of the main group, and Hunk blasted a hole out of the middle that filled itself in within seconds.

Another group attacked Hunk causing him to scream. “They’re everywhere! Oh, whoa.”

Areas within the walls began to open, pulling out air as well as the bacteria creatures. Keith and Hunk yelled with alarm as they too began to be pulled in, but both managed to catch themselves.

“I think this thing is getting rid of the excess gas produced from its multiple stomachs,” Hunk said.

“What?” Keith frowned.

With a laugh, Hunk replied, “It’s farting!”

Keith grunted as the walls closed again, enabling them to stand. “Hunk, what have we gotta do to get that scaultrite gland to goop?”

“Uh, oh. Uh… Wait a second, wait a second, wait a second.” Hunk face contorted with concentration. “Stay away from its face… The blue laser… Ah! I know what to do!”

Hunk began flying away from Keith, towards the central mass of bacteria creatures. “If we want that third stomach gland to secrete the ooze, I need to get farted out of the weblum’s butt and attack the face, getting it to fire its laser puke.”

Striking a heroic pose, he continued. “For the sake of the universe, I’ll provoke the beast! You two stay here and get that scaultrite!”

Keith gritted his teeth. “Hurry! I don’t know how long we can hold these things off.”

Hunk made his way towards the reopening walls of the weblum’s stomach, flying out with a yell, leaving Keith alone with the strange Galra.

**************************************

Keith and the stranger were surrounded by bacteria creatures, struggling to fight them off. “Hunk, whatever you’re gonna do, do it _now!”_

“Roger that,” Hunk replied. “Provoking giant space worm now.”

Whatever Hunk did had absolutely no effect. Keith sliced through more of the creatures, activating his shield to stop the next group. _“Hunk!”_

Hunk activated the Yellow Lion’s enhanced armour, taking a shot at the weblum. “Yoo-hoo! Over here!” The weblum started to charge its laser. “Yes! Yes, it’s gonna do it! Oh no, it’s gonna do it!”

The bacteria creatures suddenly retreated as the scaultrite gland began to glow.

“It’s working!” Keith gasped. “I think it’s about to get hot in here.”

He retreated to an alcove, the Galra following him, as he activated his shield to protect them both from the laser fire.

“Oh, yes!” The weblum prepared to fire again. Hunk wailed, “Oh, no!”

Just as the laser fired, Hunk flew out of the way with a yell. “Oh, yeah! He’s out! Tell me you got the scaultrite.”

“Grabbing it now,” Keith told him, as he reached for the many shards of scaultrite which were now floating around the weblum’s stomach. He filled several bags with the material when suddenly he heard a weapon whirring behind him. Turning, he saw the stranger’s blaster pointing to him once again.

“So, you’re just like the rest of ’em,” he said, disappointment lacing his voice.

The stranger grabbed one of the bags, turning and escaping before Keith could even think to follow.

“I’m coming out,” he told Hunk, grabbing the remaining bags of scaultrite.

“On my way,” Hunk replied, turning the Yellow Lion to rendezvous with Keith. Noting that the Red Paladin entered the cockpit alone, he asked, “Where’s your buddy?”

“He’s long gone by now, and he got a bag of scaultrite,” Keith said bitterly.

“What? Should we go after him?”

Keith shook his head. “No. Whatever the Galra are planning won’t matter after we defeat Zarkon.”

“Copy that.”

Keith stepped forward, putting a hand on the back of Hunk’s chair. “By the way, Hunk, you really came through in the clutch back there. Without you, the mission would have been a failure.”  
  
Hunk blushed. “Aw, thanks, Galra Keith. You’re all right. I think turning Galra has made you a better human.”

Keith counted to five, then yelled, “I didn’t just turn Galra!”


	9. Is There An Alternate Reality Where You Aren't Annoying?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You, Lance, Pidge and Shiro infiltrate a facility to free a prisoner of the Galra, but there is some confusion as to exactly who has found the right inmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter based on Series 2, Episode 10 “Escape from Beta Traz”.

“All right guys, we’re ready to fire,” Lance told you, Shiro and Pidge.

“Be careful, you’ve only got one shot,” you reminded him.

Lance winked at you cockily. “Don’t worry, cutie. I’m an excellent shot.”

Pidge raised an eyebrow. “You are?”

“Yes! That’s my thing!” Lance sounded indignant that you and Pidge were sceptical.

“Since when?” Pidge scoffed.

The Blue Paladin sulked. “Just get ready.”

You, Pidge and Shiro exited the Blue Lion, heading through the asteroid field towards the prison facility that Kolivan had provided directions to. As you approached, the three of you activated grappling hooks into the side of the building. As you pulled yourselves towards the prison, the panel holding Pidge’s hook pulled away from the building. She screamed as she started to drift back into space.

“Pidge!” Shiro grunted, grabbing the grappling line and pulling Pidge back towards him.

“Nice catch,” she thanked him as you helped him pull the tiny girl to safety.

You all found yourselves staring at a large door. “This seems like an awfully large place to hold only one prisoner,” you muttered.

Shiro nodded. “Let’s hope this Slav guy is as good as the Blade of Marmora said he is.”

Pidge scanned the sensor on the door, nodding to Shiro before he placed his Galra prosthetic to the door. Thankfully, it opened.

A whirring sound emanated from the electronic device that Pidge was holding. “Beginning phase two of the plan. I’m blocking the sensors. Lance, you’ve only got four doboshes to scan the base and land your Lion before they’re back online.”

“Copy that,” Lance confirmed. Beeping sounded once again. “Initialising sonic scan now.”

The Blue Lion roared before firing sonic waves towards the prison from its shoulder cannons. “Sonic scan complete. Uploading the data.”

Pidge nodded happily as the information that Lance sent her came through intact. “Perfect. We’re right on top of your entry point. Get to my location. Hurry, you’ve got sixty ticks.”

“On my way,” Lance confirmed. After a few short moments, he landed, joining the three of you on the platform.

Shiro looked out at the base, then back at all of you. “Okay, phase two complete. Welcome to Beta Traz.”

**************************************

“I’ve compiled the data from the Blue Lion’s sonic scan and created this map,” Pidge said as she brought up the schematics of the Galra prison on her wrist scanner. “It appears the prison is comprised of three concentric levels. Each level is showing different types of security.”

Studying the data further, she frowned. “That’s weird. The Blade of Marmora said this prison was made just for Slav, but I’m showing two cells. Who else would be held here?”

“I’m guessing a space ninja. Or maybe someone with magical powers?” Lance suggested. You gave him a look which indicated that you thought he was perhaps not taking this mission as seriously as required. “You know, just spit-balling here. I don’t know. Let’s just keep tossing out ideas.”

“Can you get a visual on the cells?” Shiro asked Pidge.

She shook her head. “No, not from here. And even if I could, we don’t know what Slav looks like.”

“Then we’re just going to have to check both.”  
  
“Dibs on the closer one!” Lance cried. He noticed your disapproving look. “What? My legs are tired.”

“I’ll come with you, Shiro,” you told the Black Paladin. “If this Slav is as much trouble as the Blade of Marmora say, he’s likely to be heavily guarded.”

Pidge sighed. “I’ll go to the Command Centre to try and access the security system.”  
  
Shiro nodded at the three of you. “Let’s get moving.”

**************************************

“I’m in,” Pidge’s voice came through the helmet comms.

“Guide us through,” Shiro whispered.

“It looks like the top level is patrolled by the sentries. The second level is patrolled by floating drones.” Pidge paused for a second. “Oh, wow, that’s interesting.”

“Good interesting?” Lance asked hopefully.

“The second level also has immobilising foam,” Pidge said.

“Oh, so bad interesting,” Lance said mournfully.

“And the third level?” Shiro pressed.

“Closed system. I can’t get in from here,” Pidge told him regretfully.

You raised your eyebrows in surprise. “You can’t get in from the Command Centre?”

“No single location can access the entire prison. It’s a security measure. When you reach that level, you’ll have to link me in.”

“We’re on our way down,” Shiro told her.

“Okay.”

Lance pulled you behind a column as the three of you spotted a sentry. “How are we going to get this guy?”

You formed your staff with your Bayard, striking out while Shiro sliced the guard in half with his prosthetic hand.

“Good teamwork on that one,” Lance congratulated you. You poked out your tongue at him, slightly annoyed that he hadn’t actually helped.

“Uh-oh, we’re spotted.” Shiro pointed to a drone heading your way.

“No, no, no, that’s mine!” Pidge cried. “He’s going to be your escort through this hallway. He’ll scramble the monitors. Shiro, you and Y/N go left. Lance, go right.”

“Affirmative,” Shiro responded.

Lance went down the right corridor. You and Shiro turned to the left, heading down the corridor until you reached a control panel.

“Okay, open the panel next to you,” Pidge instructed. “Shiro, connect your gauntlet so I can hack in.”

Shiro did as he was told, his prosthetic arm lighting up as it connected to the terminal. A ‘ding’ sounded. You assumed that Lance was doing the same thing on his side of the prison.

“Now I have access to Level Three,” Pidge said, sounding pleased. “Opening the entrances.”

You and Shiro ran through the hallway, stopping when your progress was halted by a large metal door. There didn’t seem to be a sensor pad that Shiro could access with his gauntlet, so there was no way for you to go further.

“All right, we made it to the cell. Open the doors, Pidge,” Shiro said.

“Uh, I can’t from here.”

Lance’s voice came again. “The door over here scanned that guy’s face.”

“Oh, facial recognition,” Pidge cried. “Shiro, hold tight. Lance, you’re gonna need to get a scan of his face.”

“Copy that,” Shiro and Lance replied at the same time.

Pidge received a scan of the guard’s face from Lance, and sent it to Shiro. He used the scan to open the cell doors, and you and Shiro made your way inside. A strange creature was sitting on the bed in the cell.

“Are you Slav?” Shiro asked the creature.

It blinked before asking timidly, “Are you here to torture me?”

“No, we’re here to save you. We’re Paladins of Voltron,” you informed him.

“Oh, no, even worse,” the creature replied mournfully. “In ninety-eight and three one-hundredths of a percent of realities with a prison break, I die! And _your_ chances are even worse!”

“Pidge, I’ve got Slav,” Shiro and Lance said simultaneously.

“What?” Pidge asked, confused.

“I said I have Slav,” Shiro repeated.

“No, _I_ have Slav,” Lance contradicted him. “Wait, hold on. Tell me the truth. Are you Slav?”

You heard a deep voice in the background mumble, “Yup.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Pidge cried with exasperation. “You’re just gonna have to bring both of them back.”

“Okay. Give us the route out of here,” you told Pidge.

“Yeah, we’re ready to go, too,” Lance echoed.

There was no response from the Green Paladin.

“Hello?” Lance’s voice was filled with concern.

“Pidge!” Shiro called.

Still no response. Shiro contacted the Blue Paladin directly. “Lance, looks like we’re on our own. We’ve gotta get back to Pidge.”

“Wait, what? I have no idea where I’m going,” Lance protested.

Shiro turned to Slav. “Come on. We’ve got to hurry.”

“No, thanks.”

Shiro stared at the ridiculous creature. “What? We’re finally going to stop Zarkon. We have the Olkari and the Blade of Marmora on our side. But without you, we can’t do it.”

“Mm.” Slav stared back at him, refusing to move from his cell.

“I can have you on the Blue Lion and gone in no time, but we must hurry!” Shiro said urgently.

“Oh, the Blue Lion. Why didn’t you say so?” Slav said pleasantly. “Blue light has a frequency between six hundred and six to six hundred and eight terahertz.”

You stared at the little alien quizzically. “Is that gonna jam their scanners or something?”

Slav shook his head. “No, that’s just my lucky range of terahertz. Let’s go!” He then commenced to make his bed, muttering to himself as he did so. “Okay, uh, more to the left. Mm… This needs to be right. Um… Oh, but not too right.”

“Oh, come on!” Shiro cried with exasperation.

Slav yelped, messing up his blanket. “Oh! Now I gotta start over.” He fussed with the bedding again, while Shiro stood, grinding his teeth in frustration. Finally, the little creature seemed satisfied. “Perfect! Okay, now there’s a two percent chance this mission won’t result in a horrific, deadly fireball. Let’s leave!”

The three of you turned to leave the cell, before Slav stopped with a scream. “Let’s go back!”

Shiro growled. “Just take the blanket with you.” He reached for the bedding

“What? No, the blanket’s perfect. Don’t touch the blanket! It’s that!” He screamed again, pointing in front of him.

Staring at the floor, Shiro said, “That’s a tiny puddle. You’ll be fine.”

“There’s a twelve percent chance I could slip,” Slav argued. “There are even realities in which I drown because, in those realities, I never learned to swim!”

“What about in this reality? Did you learn to swim in this one?” you asked sarcastically.

“I can’t remember! There are infinite possibilities!” Slav cried, his head in his hands.

“It’s a tiny puddle!” Shiro reiterated.

“I can already feel myself not being able to breathe. My lungs are filling with water,” Slav said melodramatically.

Poor Shiro’s eye started to twitch uncontrollably. You couldn’t really blame him. You were thankful that your Bayard didn’t transform into a gun, like Lance and Hunk’s did. Otherwise you probably would have shot the silly creature already.

“What if Shiro carried you over the puddle? Would that work?” you suggested in an overly sweet tone.

Slav looked thoughtful, before proclaiming that it was a reasonable solution. Shiro wasn’t sure whether to thank you for the suggestion, or curse you for it, so he kept his mouth shut. Picking up Slav, he proceeded to carry him down the hall towards the area where Pidge was waiting.

“You’re so strong,” Slav said admiringly. “Must be that robot arm. But doesn’t it bother you that you only have one?”

Without warning, Slav started screaming again, jumping off Shiro’s shoulders and hiding behind a wall.

“What? What?” Shiro cried.

“Look at all those cracks! I can’t step on those,” Slav told him.

Shiro’s eye twitched even more. “I was carrying you!”

“Oh, I guess no one cares about their mother’s backs anymore!”  
  
You looked at Slav curiously. “Wait, you know that nursery rhyme?”

“Nursery rhyme? I’m talking about quantum realities here,” Slav scolded you. “Cracks initiate space-time temporal fissures, which mathematically make higher probabilities for alternate realities in which your mother has a broken back."

Shiro’s eye started twitching again. “Is there a different route we can take? One without cracks?”

“Well, sure, we could go out the scree duct, but, you know, it’s all full of scree. Ugh!” Slav shuddered. “There’s the flaxenator, but you can hear the water dripping in there.”

“And you’re worried about drowning,” you said knowingly.

Slav looked pleased. “Now you’re getting it!”

“Pidge, are you there? We need an alternate route.” Shiro’s voice sounded slightly desperate. “Pidge?”

“Okay, sorry about that. I’m back. I’ll find you a new route, Shiro,” Pidge assured your team leader.

Pidge sent through the alternate route details, and you and Shiro headed in that direction. It wasn’t long before Slav once again became hysterical about the cracks in the floor. You were thankful that Keith hadn’t come along on this mission. He would have sliced and diced Slav within thirty seconds.

“How about I cover your eyes and carry you across?” Shiro asked with exaggerated patience.

“I’ll know,” Slav protested.

“Let’s just give it a try,” Shiro growled.

He picked up Slav, who whimpered softly before commencing to scream at the top of his lungs. Shiro clamped a hand over his mouth. “No screaming!”

“I was screaming?” Slav asked with disbelief.

Pidge’s voice sounded regretful. “Uh, I don’t see an alternate route, Shiro.”

The two of you groaned, before continuing in the direction you were already heading. At this rate, you were worried that the prisoner wasn’t going to make it out alive, because either you or Shiro were likely to kill him.

“We’ve got to go!” you insisted.

Slav continued screaming as Shiro tried in vain to grab the silly alien. Shiro glared at Slav. “My friends are in trouble. We have to go now! We are walking over those cracks. It’s our only option.”

“Why don’t we just turn the gravity off and float over them instead?” Slav asked him. “Honestly, that’s our best shot of getting out of here in one piece. I ran the numbers.”

Shiro shot an irritated look at the creature. “Pidge, any chance you can turn the gravity off?”

“Oh, that’s a great idea!” she agreed. “Then the sentries won’t be able to manoeuvre, but we have our jetpacks. It’s genius!”

Pidge turned off the gravity, and your jetpacks whirred as you and Shiro made your way to the hangar. Shiro grunted as he carried Slav with him.

“That robot arm is fantastic!” Slav enthused as Shiro sliced through the oncoming Galra sentries. “Now, imagine if you had two. Our chances of survival would go up three hundred percent from totally doomed to highly unlikely.”

You caught up with Lance, who had a large furry creature with him. Slav’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow, you have Laika. The warden will not be happy about that.”

Lance looked confused. “Who’s Laika?”

“She’s the warden’s pet yupper,” Slav clarified, pointing to the beast.

“Wait, what?” Lance gasped. He turned to the hairy creature. “You’re an animal?”

“Yup,” said Laika.

“Oh, I can see where the confusion was for you,” Slav said, nodding with understanding.

_‘Flyboy, you should probably be grateful that you are with Hunk and not here,’_ you thought.

_‘Why, what have you done?’_ You could feel the grin in his thought. Jerk.

_‘Nothing. Yet. But I’m seriously tempted to kill this prisoner myself, which would completely defeat the purpose of trying to break him out of a Galra prison.’_

Surprisingly, you felt a flood of sympathy over the life-bond that you shared with the other Paladin of the Red Lion. _‘That bad?’_

_‘He’s making Shiro’s eye twitch. Also, Lance rescued someone that didn’t actually need rescuing, so that might cause some problems, too.’_

You felt Keith’s laughter. _‘Typical Lance.’_

Before you could reply further, Pidge’s voice came through the helmet comms. “Gravity’s back online in three, two, one. I’m headed for the hangar.”

All of you yelped as you fell to the floor, gravity once again taking hold. Entering the hangar, you noted with dismay that several sentries were standing in front of the Blue Lion. You activated your staff, and Lance aimed his rifle.

“Get to the Lion!” Shiro ordered, as the Galra sentries fired at you. Lance shot two of them, while Shiro attacked with his prosthetic. Just as Lance was about to take down the last sentry, you knocked it out with your staff.

“I had him!” he pouted.

Shiro looked up at where Slav was hiding. “Let’s go. Slav!”

“Be right with you!” Slav replied, looking like he had absolutely no intention of following an of you.

“Slav!” cried the warden. Slav screamed as the warden glared at all of you. “You steal my yupper _and_ my prisoner?”

The warden chased after all of you, as you, Shiro and Lance tried to usher Slav towards the Lion, where Pidge was already waiting impatiently. Pushing a button on his suit, the warden was injected with fluid from the canisters at his neck. To your alarm, he grew an extra pair of arms, even as he grew taller and wider. The creature towered over all of you as he cried, “You’re not going anywhere. And neither is the Lion.”

All of you screamed as the warden attacked. He threw you and Pidge aside as if you were ragdolls, and knocked Shiro into a wall.

“See what I was saying about those robot arms?” Slav said as Shiro lay on the floor trying to catch his breath.

Lance fired at the Galra, who then threw what looked like a shipping container at your friend. Luckily, he managed to skip out of the way in time.

You aimed your staff at the warden, who grabbed the end of it and tossed you aside. You knocked into Lance, who then crashed into Pidge as she was trying to stand up. The three of you collapsed in a heap.

Alarms were blaring as the battle continued. Looking up, you saw Slav standing over the button to the airlock. Glaring at the warden, he punched the button, causing the airlock to open and everyone to be sucked towards the outside of the prison.

Before Slav could join you, he was grabbed by the warden. His shrieks captured your attention.

“Wait, I got this,” Lance assured you all, taking aim with his rifle as he took a deep breath. “Come on…”

He released his breath as he fired, and the warden screamed as he was hit in his arm. He let go of Slav, and you grabbed the little alien as he floated into space.

“Nice, Lance! That’s why we bring our sharpshooter,” Shiro congratulated him.

“Yup,” Lance said with a smug grin. Blue caught all of you in its mouth, and you headed inside so you could make your way back to the Castle.

You crowded into the cockpit, where Pidge was looking at more data on the screen in front of her. “The information I found on my brother says he was taken by a group of rebels. He’s still out there.”

Shiro placed a comforting hand on the tiny Paladin. “Matt’s a lot like you. He’s a survivor. We’ll find him.”

Pidge looked at him gratefully, desperately hoping that Shiro’s words were true.


	10. Stayin' Alive... Barely

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura travels back to the Balmera to acquire a powerful crystal, but a visit from an evil beast prompts her to call on the Paladins for help. You try to take Keith’s mind off the fact that Allura is still cold towards him after discovering the truth about his heritage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter relates to Series 2, Episode 11 “Stayin’ Alive”

“I think turning Galra has made you a better human.”

Keith groaned as he mentally counted to five, then yelled, “I didn’t just turn Galra!”

He glared at Hunk, who was poking him in the arm repeatedly. “Are you trying to see if my skin is purple?”

Poke. “No,” Hunk denied. Poke, poke, poke.

The computer beeped, and Princess Allura’s voice sounded over the Yellow Lion’s comms. “Hunk, Keith, are you there? Can you hear me?”

“Hunk and Keith here,” Keith responded. “What’s going on, Princess?”  
  
“You must return to the Castle! I need you.” Her voice was filled with urgency.

“We’re on our way,” Keith confirmed.

With a nod, Hunk activated the Yellow Lion’s thrusters, trying to get back to the Castle as quickly as possible.

**************************************

Lance sat in the Blue Lion’s cockpit, preparing to head back to the Castle. “All right, what are we doing now?”

“Let’s call Allura and let her know that we have Slav and we’re ready for her to use the teludav,” Pidge answered.

Slav frowned. “You didn’t say we’d be travelling by teludav.”

Shiro’s face turned red and his eye started twitching again. “What’s the problem? We’re travelling by teludav. So just count your hair follicles, or fluff a pillow, or whatever you need to do to make sure we survive the wormhole trip in this reality!”

Slav blinked slowly at Shiro’s outburst. His reply was meek. “I was just going to point out that the teludav is a very efficient form of travel.”

You did your best not to laugh at the expression of absolute defeat on Shiro’s face. Really, he was being incredibly patient with the ridiculous creature that you’d just rescued.

Allura’s voice interrupted your conversation. “Paladins, are you there?”

“Princess, what’s happening?” Lance asked her.

“That monster that attacked us on the Balmera before has returned!”

“What?” all of you cried in unison.

“I need you back here immediately” Allura urged.

“You got it, Princess. Sharpshooter is on the way,” Lance assured her.

You looked at your best friend, one eyebrow quirked. “Sharpshooter?”

“It’s my new nickname that I gave myself,” he replied loftily. “Just—Just pass it on.”

Oh, boy, was Keith ever going to have fun with that little bit of information.

“Ready when you are, Allura,” Shiro told the princess, as the Blue Lion appeared over the surface of the Balmera.

You stared with disbelief at the ro-beast that had wreaked so much havoc only a few short weeks ago. You had all been so sure that it had been defeated for good, and yet here it was, once again causing devastation to the peaceful creature and the beings who resided upon it.

“Whoa! How is that thing operational? It doesn’t have a head!” Lance sounded disgusted at the sight before him.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it has something to do with those crystals,” said Pidge, pointing to the crystal shields surrounding the hideous thing.

“We can’t worry about that now,” Shiro told them. “We have to protect the Castle.”

Slav whimpered in the background.

“How did we beat it last time?” You had never been so relieved to hear Keith’s voice before.

You saw the Yellow Lion fly into view as Hunk said, “We formed Voltron, then I stuck in my Bayard and shot it with my blaster right in its arm lasers. But that didn’t stop it so then we had to punch it.”

“So we’re gonna need Voltron,” Shiro said grimly.

“But we only have two Lions,” Pidge pointed out.

Lance brightened up. “Well, maybe we can form the legs and kick it?” Blue dodged out of the way of an enormous laser which the ro-beast fired at you. “Whoa!”

The laser blasts hit two large asteroids, causing them to explode.

“That new laser is much more powerful. We’re definitely gonna need all the Lions,” Shiro muttered. “Hunk, you distract it so we can fly into the Castle. Once we get our Lions out, we’ll cover you so you can fly Keith in for Red.”

You touched Shiro’s arm. “I’ll fly Red out. I don’t think we’re going to have time to let Hunk drop Keith off afterwards.”  
  
Shiro nodded, agreeing to your amendment to the plan. It made sense. You weren’t as experienced a pilot as Keith, but you were bonded to Red, so hopefully you wouldn’t have too much difficulty getting the Lion to do what you needed.

“Wait, wait, wait. I have to hold that thing off by myself?” Hunk whimpered.

“You have Keith,” you reminded him.

“Yeah, but he’s in here with me!”

“There’s no time to argue. We’ve got to do this _now!”_ Shiro told him.

“Oh, quiznak,” Hunk swore.

**************************************

“Those crystals are blocking all of our attacks!” Hunk cried, as the ro-beast used the crystals as shields to defend itself from the Yellow Lion’s tail cannon. The beast fired its laser and the beam hit the Castle, disintegrating the particle barrier. “Oh, no! The Castle is doomed unless we distract that beast.”

He flew the Yellow Lion directly at the beast, smashing through its defensive crystal shields. Keith grunted with satisfaction when he noticed the creature finally turn its attention towards the Yellow Lion as Hunk led it away from the Castle. “Good, it’s chasing us.”

Hunk gave him a look which indicated that he didn’t share Keith’s assessment of the situation.

**************************************

“The particle barrier is severely damaged,” Allura called from the bridge of the Castle as you and the others raced aboard, with Slav staring in wide-eyed wonder at the Castle.

“Lance, get back out to give Hunk cover,” Shiro ordered as he raced to the zipline that would take him to the Black Lion’s hangar. “Y/N, Pidge and I are right behind you.”

“You got it, Shiro,” confirmed the Blue Paladin, racing towards Blue. You and Pidge headed to your hangars as well, eager to have all the Lions together as soon as possible in order to form Voltron and hopefully defeat the ro-beast once and for all.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll just hang out here,” Slav told the Black Paladin.

Shiro looked at the alien. “Can you help the Princess restore the particle barrier?”

“Yes.”  
  
When the creature didn’t move, Shiro glared at him. _“Now?”_

“Oh, you mean in _this_ reality,” Slav replied slowly. “Got it.” He started whimpering as he headed towards the bridge.

**************************************

“Bank left! Barrel roll! Nose dive!” Keith barked over Hunk’s shoulder.

Hunk growled at him. “Quit back Lion driving!”

The comms beeped. “I’ll distract it! Get to the Red Lion!”

“Oh ho ho, good timing, Lance!” Hunk cried happily.

The Blue Lion’s blaster revved up. Keith and Hunk screamed as the Yellow Lion was hit by a blast from the ro-beast. It fell listlessly towards the surface of the Balmera.

“Guys!” Lance yelled.

“Hunk, do something,” Keith hissed urgently.

Hunk tried feverishly to get the Yellow Lion to respond. “I can’t move! I’m hit. Nothing’s working.” Pressing buttons and pulling levers, he whispered, “Come on, boy. Come back to me.”

“We need to protect Hunk,” Pidge said, racing the Green Lion towards the stricken Lion.

“I’ve got him,” Shiro grunted, steering the Black Lion towards Hunk and capturing him in its paws.

“I’m getting real sick of that crystal,” Lance ground out as he continued to fire at the ro-beast with absolutely no effect. “Let’s take it out.”  
  
“On it,” Pidge agreed.

Both of them flew towards the ro-beast, hoping to destroy its crystal shield, but it managed to break free and head past both Lions as it sent them hurtling away.

“Shiro, it’s on its way to the Castle!” Pidge yelled.

“I’ve got it!” responded the team leader, releasing the Yellow Lion as he turned to attack the ro-beast.

“Well, who’s got me?” Hunk asked. He turned as he noticed Keith preparing to exit the Yellow Lion. “Where are you going?”  
  
“I’ll jump out and jetpack over to the Castle,” Keith replied, as if the answer should have been obvious.

Hunk laughed. “Good one. Wait, serious?”

“Got to hurry!” Keith muttered, jumping out of Yellow and making his way towards the Castle.

He was halfway to the Castle when he was hit by a blast from the ro-beast which sent him hurtling in the opposite direction, crying out in pain and alarm. Keith heard a growl, and saw the Red Lion heading towards him. He heard your voice over his helmet comms. “Hey there, handsome. I heard you might need a ride?”

Never had a voice sounded so sweet. “Perfect timing, babe.”

Red opened its jaws and Keith boarded, grateful to be back in his own Lion. Hunk was a good guy, but a little bit of his company went a long way. You were a much more preferable flying companion.

You jumped out of the pilot’s seat, relinquishing control to Keith. He looked at you with some surprise, knowing how much you enjoyed every opportunity you could take to fly. “Your skills are what we need right now, Keith. I’ll get my turn another time.”

With a small smile, he hopped behind the controls and headed back towards the others.

“Hey, my Lion’s working again! I’m back, baby!” Hunk cried happily. The Yellow Lion snarled, and Hunk cooed. “Okay, let’s go.”

The ro-beast attacked once again, grabbing Yellow and once again immobilising it. It charged up its chest laser, preparing to strike a potentially fatal blow. “Wait, what? Oh, man! Not again! Oh, no, no, no!”

Suddenly, Red swooped in and joined the other Lions as they fired at the ro-beast in the hopes that it would relinquish its hold on Yellow. “Sorry I’m late, guys,” Keith apologised.

“Okay, let’s form Voltron and take this thing down like we did last time,” Lance said.

“I don’t think the ro-beast is gonna sit around and wait for us to transform,” you said sarcastically.

“Y/N’s right,” Shiro agreed. “We’ll need to think of something else.”

“Hey, at least we outnumber those crystal shields,” Hunk noted.

Lance’s voice was not quite as enthusiastic. “Yeah, he can only block two of us.”

“I think I’ve got an idea,” Pidge told you. “Guys, see if you can get me an open shot at its chest.”

“Got it!” Shiro told her, firing at the beast while distracting it from what Pidge was doing. Keith, Lance and Hunk followed suit, and after a few tense minutes, they finally allowed Pidge an opening, which she took. Her shot hit the ro-beast square in the chest with the Green Lion’s vines, stopping it for a few precious moments.

“Nice job, Pidge,” Shiro congratulated her. “Now form Voltron!”

All five Lions flew in formation until they were able to form the giant robot defender, and the team activated the giant sword that had been discovered only recently, in hopes of finally putting an end to the ro-beast.

After several minutes, the ro-beast was struck in the centre of its chest and, with a large crackle of electricity, the creature exploded.You breathed a sigh of relief, apologising when you noticed how tightly your hand had been squeezing Keith’s shoulder. He gave you a soft smile, grabbing your hand in one of his and giving it a gentle squeeze in return.

“Great work, Paladins,” Allura congratulated the team. “Now return to the Castle so we can get back to Olkarion.”

**************************************

As you entered the Castle’s bridge, the team heard Slav interrogating Allura. “Why is there a grand entrance on the fortieth floor? And what’s with all the ziplines? You have hover technology.”

“Well, you know what? Ziplines were quite fashionable ten thousand years ago,” Allura snapped. Clearly, her usually patient nature had been severely tested by the annoying little alien.

“Allura, have you heard from Coran?” Keith asked.

“Yes.” The princess turned her back on him as she answered in a monosyllable. Keith’s face fell at her chilly demeanour, while you clenched your fists in annoyance. Clearly, she was still unreasonably resentful of his Galra lineage.

“So are we ready to pop through the wormhole and get back to Olkarion?” Lance queried.

Allura was much more forthcoming with the Blue Paladin. “Yes. I’ve checked in with Coran and the teludav is nearly complete. Hunk, thank you for getting the scaultrite,” she said, turning to the Yellow Paladin with a smile.

“No problem. You know, Keith was there too.” Hunk motioned toward Keith with his thumb, causing Allura’s expression to turn thunderous. Keith tried to shrink even further into himself, and it made you determined to find a way to take away his pain.

**************************************

“We’ve made great progress while you were gone,” Coran said smoothly as the team joined him on Olkarion. “And now that we have the scaultrite, we should be finished in less than a quintant.”

He showed the nearly-completed teludav, while all of you admired his handiwork.

“Wow. That is one giant teludav,” Lance said appreciatively.

Keith nodded. “Nice work, Coran.”

“Good job, Coran,” Hunk said, giving the Altean a fist bump. He moved his hand back, fingers spread wide. “Now blow it up.”

“Oh, don’t you dare!” Coran screeched, not understanding the larger boy’s reference. “It took forever to build this teludav. And let’s not forget it’s a pivotal piece that we need for our plan to defeat Zarkon.”

The console started beeping, and Coran turned to the screen in time to see Slav wandering near the teludav. “I’ve made some improvements to your design. This will increase our chances of survival in this reality by two hundred and five percent.”

Coran looked at all of you. “Is this guy a little…?” He made the signal indicating that he thought Slav was a little bit on the crazy side.

Shiro nodded. “Yes.”

“No doubt,” Pidge confirmed.

“Not a fan,” Lance agreed.

“I vote for putting him back in that prison,” you added.

Coran turned back to see Slav hitting the lens with a rock. “Stop hitting the teludav!”  
  
None of you were really surprised by the explosion which followed.

**************************************

“Allura, may I speak with you for a moment?”

The Altean princess smiled at you as she turned away from the window overlooking the Olkarion city. “Y/N, of course. What do you need?”

You took a deep breath. “I need you to stop treating Keith as if he’s the enemy.”

Allura’s expression changed from friendly to hard in an instant. “I see.”

“Princess, I understand your hatred of the Galra Empire. Believe me, you have every right to despise them. But Keith is not Zarkon, or Sendak, or any of the others that destroyed your civilisation.”  
  
She turned away from you. Her voice was cold when she spoke. “You have no idea what they have done to my people. To countless others. Entire galaxies destroyed by one race.”

“Allura, I understand. We’ve had people do similar things back on Earth. But you cannot punish one person for the actions of an entire race. Especially when he didn’t even know about his heritage until a few days ago!” You ran your hands over your face, trying to control your temper. “Keith being part-Galra doesn’t change anything.”

Allura whirled around to look at you, anger marring her lovely face. “It changes _everything!”_

“No, it doesn’t,” you insisted. “Keith is still a Paladin of Voltron. He is still bonded to the Red Lion. Red trusts him. Shiro and the others trust him. _I_ trust him. He is still a part of this team, and I am telling you now, if you continue to treat him like he is garbage then he is going to leave. And he will never come back.”

“That might be for the best.” Allura didn’t look at you.

“Allura, if Keith leaves, then _I_ leave, too. I am not going to stay where the person that I am life-bonded to is so clearly unwelcome.” The princess stared at you. “If we leave, that means that Red won’t have a Paladin, and you can’t form Voltron. You need both of us.”

You turned to leave, looking back over your shoulder at the princess. “Allura, he may be part-Galra, but he is still all Keith. And that’s never going to change.”

Allura watched silently as you walked away.

**************************************

The team were standing on top of the Olkarion command centre, looking out over the sunset.

You automatically stood next to Keith, rather than your usual spot next to your best friend. You rested your head against his shoulder as you wrapped your arms around his waist, and he put his arm around you and pressed a kiss to your forehead. Lance frowned, but noted how relaxed both you and Keith were with each other lately, and for once decided to keep his mouth shut. Pidge and Hunk exchanged wide-eyed looks of surprise, while Shiro just smiled with approval.

“What’s everybody thinking about?” Pidge asked, in an attempt to break the awkward silence.

“Zarkon,” everyone replied instantly.

“Calzones,” Hunk muttered, before seeming to realise what he’d said. “I mean, uh, heck, yeah, I’m thinking about calzones, okay? I mean, does it always have to be about Zarkon? He’s a bad guy. We’re trying to defeat him. I get it. I’m hungry.” His stomach rumbled loudly.

“We’ve come a long way,” Keith said softly, looking at you as he spoke.

Lance chuckled. “Yeah, remember when Hunk used to throw up from riding in the elevator?”

Hunk groaned, then hastily changed the subject. “You guys remember that Arusian? Klaizap, I think his name was? Cool name.”  
  
Lance laughed even harder. “Yeah, Keith tried to beat him up even though he’s the size of a peanut.”

“He was their bravest warrior!” Keith protested.

“Remember when Coran tried to make us all bond by handcuffing us to each other?” You grinned. “And then he started a food fight.”

The food fight reminded Pidge of something. “How about the time the food goo machines attacked us in the kitchen?”  
  
“That was the scariest thing that’s happened to me the entire time I’ve been here,” Hunk proclaimed.

“Oh, come on,” Lance scoffed.

“What? It’s the truth!”  
  
“We faced sentries, a haunted castle, giant ro-beasts, a mall security guard…” Lance counted each less-than-pleasant encounter on his fingers.

“And don’t forget that cool cube thing,” Pidge interrupted.

“Yeah, and that awful cube thing.” Lance shuddered at the memory.

Shiro looked at all of you seriously. “You realise once we defeat Zarkon, the universe won’t need Voltron anymore.”  
  
Lance perked up. “We can return to Earth.”

Your shoulders slumped. You weren’t really sure if you wanted to go home. Out here you had freedom, and the chance to make a real difference. Back on Earth, your parents would try to control every move you made. No, Earth was the last place you wanted to be right now.

“I can look for my family,” Pidge cried excitedly.

Keith considered this. “I guess I could look for mine.”

“This is it,” Shiro said. “As long as everything goes according to plan, we can’t fail.”

**************************************

You stood in the doorway of Keith’s room. “Hey, Flyboy. What’s happening?”

Keith sighed, flopping down on his bed. “Oh, nothing much. Just trying to get used to the fact that Allura hates me now, and probably always will.”

You sat on the edge of the bed, and he propped his head in your lap as you ran your fingers through his raven locks. “She doesn’t hate you.”

At his incredulous look, you said, “Okay, so maybe you’re not her favourite person right now. But she’ll come around eventually. She’s going to remember that you are not like Zarkon or any of the other Galra, and she’ll make things up to you. You’ll see.”

“How do you know?” he whispered, sounding more vulnerable than you had ever heard.

“Because she’s going to realise that there are some Galra that we can actually trust.” When Keith raised a sceptical eyebrow at him, you gave him a sultry smirk. Your voice was husky as you spoke again. “I know of at least _one_ Galra that I would trust with my life.”

“Oh, really?” He tried to feign indifference, but you could tell that Keith was affected by your flirtatious tone.

“Definitely. There’s one particular Galra I know who is unfailingly loyal, and incredibly brave. An amazing fighter. I’d trust him to have my back any day.”

“Really?” Keith asked, a playful smile on his face.

“Yep. Not only that, but he’s also really sweet, and caring, and _extremely_ attractive.” Your voice dropped to a whisper as you moved your face closer, your breath tickling his ear as you spoke. “In fact, I think I might even be a little bit in love with him.”

Keith made a show of inspecting his fingernails, as if he wasn’t desperate for you to say the words he was too scared to say himself. “Anyone I know?”

“Sure, I’d say you know him pretty well. So…” Your mouth curved into a mischievous smile, and Keith’s breath caught in his throat as your lips hovered a hair’s breadth from his. “…Do you think Antok would say yes if I asked him on a date?”

Keith blinked several times before his brain started working again. _“What?!”_

You jumped up and sprinted out of his room, laughing. He chased after you, outraged. “Y/N! You get back here _right now!_ What do you mean you’re in love with _Antok?!”_

You raced back into the lounge, calling out to Shiro and begging him to protect you from the mean Galra who was trying to hurt you. The rest of the team stared in bewilderment as Keith tackled you to the ground, tickling you as he demanded that you take back what you said. Shrieking with laughter, you refused to apologise, so he continued the onslaught until you had no choice but to beg for mercy.

Eventually, the two of you collapsed in a tangle of limbs on the floor of the lounge, breathless, as everyone else wondered whether the two of you had finally lost your minds. Shiro just gave the two of you his most weary ‘Space Dad’ face, shaking his head.

Standing up, Keith offered you a hand which you gratefully accepted. You laced your arms behind his neck. Looking into his eyes, you said sincerely, “I’m sorry, Keith. I shouldn’t have teased you. You’re right. Antok is not the Galra that I’m in love with.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said, appeased. He nuzzled your nose with his, gazing at you with undisguised affection.

Pressing a soft kiss to his cheek, you untangled yourself from his embrace and started running towards your room. “It’s actually Kolivan.”

Lance immediately offered to help Keith get you back for that one.


	11. Half Alien, All Reckless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After acquiring the teludav from the Olkari, the team prepares to launch the operation to defeat Zarkon and bring peace to the universe. Keith’s offer to infiltrate the main Galra warship brings a reconciliation with Allura, but also causes you pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter based on Series 2, Episode 12: “Best Laid Plans”

Allura clasped the hands of the Olkari leader, Ryner, as the team prepared to leave Olkarion with the new teludav. “Thank you, Ryner, for all you and the Olkari have done to assist us.”

Turning to the crowd of onlooking Olkari, the princess raised her voice. “Once we defeat Zarkon, it is my hope that we can continue to unite our forces and rebuild the once great coalition that my father, King Alfor, began.”

The Olkari cheered as the two women embraced warmly.

Coran called to Allura. “Princess, it’s time.”

Allura and Coran returned to the Castle, preparing to leave Olkarion once more.  
  
“Everyone lock into position,” Shiro instructed, as the Lions each grabbed a portion of the Olkari teludav. “We’re taking this thing up. Princess, we are go for launch.”

Allura nodded. “Charging main turbine.”

The Olkari continued waving as the Castleship returned to space with the teludav in tow, hoping to finally confront Zarkon on Allura’s terms.

**************************************

Shiro looked at everyone seriously as he brought up holograms of the newly-completed teludav, together with the Black Lion and Zarkon’s command ship. “All right, guys, listen up. I’ll use the Black Lion to lure Zarkon’s fleet to our current location and make sure he’s within the teludav’s area of effect. Keeping the teludav hidden behind the space-fold until the last possible second is essential. We can count on you, right, Slav?”  
  
The little alien seemed unbothered by the withering glare that Shiro directed at him. “Absolutely. I’ll be fine. I’m not sure about the gravity generator, though.”

“What? What was that last thing?” Hunk queried.

“Hiding a ship is one thing, but I’ve never had to build a gravity generator for something this large before,” Slav explained. “I know it’ll work, but I’m not really sure for how long.”

“Well, that’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Shiro said. “Once Zarkon’s ship is in position, Kolivan and Antok will coordinate with Thace. Together, they’ll take down Zarkon’s security system and upload the virus.”

The two Galra nodded their agreement of the plan.

“And then, he’ll be a sitting du-flax,” Pidge added. Noting the quizzical expressions of every other Paladin, she continued. “What? A du-flax is an Altean creature with a beak and webbed feet.”

“We’ll wormhole Zarkon five hundred million light years away, and he’ll be in the Yggiz Galaxy before he knows what’s hit him!” Coran cried happily, grabbing the holographic wormhole and hurling it across the bridge like a frisbee. You winced at the crashing sounds that followed shortly afterward as it bounced around the Castle bridge.

“What about Thace?” Shiro asked Kolivan.

“He should be getting into position now,” came the reply. “We received his last communication three quintants ago. We should hear from him soon.”

“Let’s do it,” Shiro nodded. He made his way to the Black Lion, and the rest of you prepared for the coming showdown with the Galra Emperor.

**************************************

“Zarkon took the bait. He’s got my location,” Shiro’s voice came. “Is everybody in position?”  
  
“We’ve not yet heard from Thace,” Kolivan replied, sounding unsettled. “He was supposed to contact us two vargas ago.”  
  
“He could have been captured,” Antok surmised.

Kolivan grunted. “Or killed. We need to abort the mission immediately.”

“Abort?” Allura cried indignantly. “No! We cannot back away now.”

“The Blade of Marmora does not take chances,” Antok told her. “It’s how we’ve survived for so long.”  
  
“It’s held you back,” Allura argued. “Your caution is the reason Zarkon is still in power.”

“We would rather wait than jeopardise everything,” Kolivan ground out. “Besides, it’s too late to get someone else on the inside.”

Keith stood up. “I’ll do it.”  
  
Because _of course_ he would be the one to immediately volunteer for something like this.

“Keith, no!” you cried in dismay, reaching for his hand to stop him.

“What?” Allura turned to the Red Paladin with shock.

“I’ll sneak onto Zarkon’s ship. I’m Galra, so I’ll be able to interact with their technology,” he said reasonably, as he gently untangled his hand from your grasp. He turned to Pidge. “Pidge, you can rig up one of those pods with a cloaking device, right?”  
  
“Well, yeah,” said Pidge, her tone clearly emphasising the unspoken _Duh._

Kolivan’s voice was stern as he looked at the Red Paladin. “Going onto Zarkon’s ship is a suicide mission. I would never command someone so inexperienced to go on a mission so dangerous.”

“No one’s commanding me,” Keith replied stubbornly. “I’m doing it.”

You stared incredulously at Kolivan. “You are not seriously going to let him go through with this, are you?”

Kolivan looked at you implacably. “Little One, you saw how he was during the trials. Nothing I or anyone else can say will dissuade him once he has decided upon a course of action.”

“Y/N, don’t blame Kolivan,” Keith told you. “This is _my_ choice.”

Shiro’s sigh was audible over the comms. “Pidge, get that pod ready. Keith… Let me know when you’re on your way. I’ll give you cover.”

Keith wouldn’t look at you as he left the Castle bridge to prepare himself to board the Galra Emperor’s ship.

**************************************

You were checking over the pod, ensuring that all systems were functioning as expected, while Pidge was fitting the cloaking device to the pod. The last thing you needed was for Keith to blow himself up again. You hadn’t spoken to him since his impetuous decision to volunteer to board the Galra leader’s warship, and he stood aside awkwardly, not knowing what to say to you that wouldn’t cause you to get more upset than you already were.

He sighed. No matter how much he cared about you, he just couldn’t seem to stop doing things that hurt you. He needed to find a way to make things up to you. Again. He couldn’t leave until he knew that things were going to be all right between the two of you.

Pidge finished tinkering with the undercarriage of the pod. “Okay, the cloaking device is ready to go.”

The princess entered the hangar, looking sternly at Keith. “Pidge… may I have a moment with Keith, please?”  
  
Pidge looked between the two of them, then glanced at the cockpit of the pod, where you were sitting unnoticed by Allura. You ducked down, the top of your head barely visible in the cockpit. You obviously didn’t want the princess to know that you were there, and Pidge knew better than to draw attention to you when you wished to remain unobtrusive. She shrugged. “Sure thing. Have all the moments you like.”

There was an awkward silence after Pidge left. Keith stared at Allura. “Is there something I can help you with?” he asked coolly.

She looked shamefaced. “I… I just wanted to say… The Galra, they’ve done terrible things. Destroyed entire civilisations. They took my family. But, in time, I’ve grown to consider you and the Paladins my family. So, when I learned you were Galra, I… I didn’t know what to think. I wanted to hate you.”  
  
“Allura… It’s…” Keith’s voice trailed off, unsure of what to say.

“But it’s not you. It’s me. My anger has blinded me for too long.” Allura sniffed, then threw her arms around Keith. “I’m so sorry I misjudged you. You’ve proven it’s not what’s in your blood; it’s who you are that counts. Please come back to us.”

Keith stood still for several seconds, before stiffly returning Allura’s embrace. “I will.”

He felt your jealousy seeping through the life-bond, even after Allura had left the hangar. You angrily climbed out of the pod, still refusing to look at him. “Well, the pod’s ready to go. I’ll leave you to it.”

Keith grabbed your hand to stop you walking away. “Y/N… you know that Allura… it meant absolutely nothing. You know that, right?”

You shrugged. “I told you she’d forgive you.”

“Y/N…”

You sighed as you turned to look at him. “Keith, I know that the only reason you volunteered for this mission was so that Allura could see that she could trust you. It worked. You’re back in her good books. Well done.”

He shook his head. “That’s not the only reason and you know it. The Blade of Marmora need someone on the inside to help their man. I’m the only one that can do this.”

“I know you _think_ that you’re the only one that can do this.” You sighed again. “I’m just getting really sick of you always finding somewhere else to be instead of with this team. Instead of with me.”

Keith pulled you to him, holding you tightly to his chest. It was such a stark contrast to his embrace with Allura that you couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit smug. You knew he didn’t have feelings for the princess, and yet you couldn’t prevent yourself from wanting to strangle him when he’d returned her embrace, however reluctant it had been.

“Y/N, if there was any other way I’d be the first one to take it,” he said. “Believe me, I’d rather not be going straight into the heart of the enemy.”  
  
“I just wish I could go with you.” Your voice was slightly muffled as you buried your face into his shoulder, trying to prevent him from noticing the tears welling in your eyes.  
  
“I need you here,” he muttered into your hair. “I need to know that you’re safe.”

“And who’s going to make sure _you’re_ safe?” You looked into his eyes. “You’re always so reckless. You are brave, and fearless, and impulsive, and you are going to be the death of me. But I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

Keith’s expression grew puzzled. “You mean you actually still like me? Even though I’m Galra?”

You rolled your eyes. “You’re only _half_ Galra. And all stupid. And one hundred percent _my_ Keith.”

You felt him swell with pride at the admission that he had your heart. You squeezed him even tighter, willing the tears in your eyes to disappear before they spilled over. “I’ve only just admitted to myself how much you mean to me, and now I’m worried that I’m never going to see you again.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “You heard me tell Allura that I’m going to come back, didn’t you?”

You held his face in your hands. “Promise me, Keith. Promise me that you will come back safely.”  
  
“I’d come back for a kiss, pretty lady,” he grinned, channelling his inner Lance.

“You come back in one piece, Flyboy, and I’ll give you one. Then maybe we’ll get a chance to explore whatever this…” You gestured between the two of you. “… whatever this is.”  
  
“Sounds good to me.” He pressed a kiss to the top of your head, before boarding the pod and preparing to infiltrate the Galra warship where Kolivan’s contact was awaiting him.

**************************************

The Black Lion beeped, alerting Shiro to the arrival of Zarkon’s fleet. “They’re here.”

The Galra warships surrounded the Black Lion, attempting to draw him in. Shiro evaded them, swooping this way and that as the fleet pursued him. He activated the Black Lion’s jaw blade, slicing his way through the fleet even as he evaded their fire. “I’ve got Zarkon on the hook. Bringing him your way. Keith, you ready? We’ve only got one shot at this!”

“Engaging cloaking device,” Keith confirmed from the pod. “Moving toward the fleet now.”

“Roger that. I don’t see you, but I’m locked on your signal. I’ll clear a path,” Shiro said. He once again engaged the Black Lion’s jaw blade, striking the Galra fighter jets out of the way so that Keith could safely land on Zarkon’s enormous command ship.

“Thanks, Shiro. I’m coming in hot!” He grunted as he landed the pod with a crash. Leaping from the pod, he activated his Bayard and struck down the sentries inside the hangar. Grabbing a rifle from one of the fallen sentries, his voice rang loud and clear. “I’m in.”

You breathed a sigh of relief.

“The plan is working,” Allura said softly. “Keith is on board and Zarkon’s fleet is on the way.”

“The Castle of Lions’ defences are up and ready to go,” Lance informed her.

“Starting gravity generator now,” Slav announced, pressing a button. “Commencing cloak.”

The Castleship and the giant teludav both disappeared from view as the little alien activated the cloaking mechanism. Now all you had to do was wait for Keith to upload the virus, and for Zarkon to take the bait.

Chewing your nails nervously, you waited.

**************************************

Kolivan’s voice sounded in Keith’s helmet comms. “Okay. You’ve made it to the lower communication deck. Head left down that corridor.”

“Based on the schematics from Thace, there should be a large door up ahead,” Antok informed him. “This is the central hub for the Galra fleet.”

“I see it,” Keith confirmed as he ran down the hallway.

**************************************  
  
“I’m two minutes out,” Shiro said. “Is everybody ready?”

“No, Keith hasn’t made it to the hub yet. We need more time,” Kolivan advised him.

“How much more?” Shiro grunted as he continued to evade laser fire from the Galra warships.

“I hope not much because my gravity generator is not going to run forever!” Slav squawked.

“I don’t know how much longer I can hold Zarkon’s fleet in this position by myself!” Shiro said through gritted teeth.

“You won’t have to!” you told Shiro, as Red swooped in together with the other Lions.

“Good timing, Y/N,” Shiro said, the relief evident in his voice. “Okay, we’ve got Zarkon’s ship right where it needs to be. We gotta keep it here until that virus is uploaded.”

Hunk hollered, “Let’s do it!”

“All right!” Lance whooped.

“Let’s kick butt,” you added.

“We got this!” Pidge yelled.

The Galra fleet flanked the Black Lion, and you prepared for the fight of your lives.

**************************************

“Kolivan, I’m in. Now what?” Keith asked softly.

“Now, you need to reset the system, using the codes that Thace obtained. It’ll be down for a dobosh. That’s when we’ll upload the virus.”

Keith brought up the holo-screen from his wrist scanner and started typing in the codes that Thace had provided, attempting to override the Galra system. His scanner began beeping rapidly. “It doesn’t seem to be working,” he cried in consternation.

“Try it again,” Kolivan urged.

The door opened with a beep, and Keith looked up. Without hesitation, he hid as best he could behind the console, his rifle raised.

“Keith, are you there?” Kolivan asked.

A Galra, who Keith hoped desperately was Thace, entered the control room and feverishly worked to enter commands into the computer. He was immediately followed by two of the Galra Druids.

“And now, we know you were attempting to shut down the system,” intoned one of the Druids.

“You’re too late,” Thace muttered mutinously.

“No, Thace,” the other Druid said. “ _You’re_ too late. We already changed the code.”

The system beeped again. With a yell, Keith jumped out from his hiding place, slashing at the Druids with his Galra blade. Both screamed as he attacked, and Thace soon joined him. They fought desperately, striking out at the Druids who were attempting to hit them with the lightning from their hands.

It was not long, though, before the Druids were silenced. Keith stared at the Galra, who returned his gaze with a steady one of his own.

“Thace, I’m Keith, a Paladin of Voltron.”

Thace nodded towards his sword. “And a fellow Blade, I see. I guess we haven’t failed.”

“Not yet.”

**************************************

Lance grunted as Blue managed to avoid the Galra lasers, banking at the last second before looping behind them and taking them out with his mouth cannon. “Yeah! That was close.”  
  
“Somebody! Anybody! A little help here!” Hunk cried as he tried desperately to evade the incoming laser fire of the Galra jets.

“Lure them to me!” Shiro ordered.

Hunk did as instructed, and the fighter jets were taken out by the Black Lion’s jaw blade.

The Castle started beeping urgently. “Zarkon’s ship is leaving the teludav’s area of effect. You must guide it back in,” Allura told all of you.

“This is getting hairy,” Lance muttered. “How you doing, Keith?”

“The Galra switched the codes,” Keith replied grimly as he sliced at the console with his blade. “We’re trying a work-around.”

“ ‘We’? Who’s ‘we’?” you asked.

“Thace. I found him. I’ll explain later,” Keith said shortly.

“Copy that,” Shiro told him.

**************************************

Keith stared as Thace worked feverishly over the console of the warship. “What exactly are you doing?”  
  
Thace looked up from the cables he was connecting to the computer. “I’m using the main power to overload the system.”  
  
Keith’s eyes widened in comprehension. “You’re turning the room into a bomb?”

“It’s the only way,” Thace said.

Both turned to look at the door as they heard someone on the other side attempting to break through to them. Keith took his blaster and shot the sentries who charged through the door, temporarily buying Thace some time.

He glanced up and noticed the crystal located above the doorway. Taking aim, he shot at the crystal, causing it to shatter. A large chunk fell to the ground and blocked the entrance to prevent further attacks.

“That solves one problem, but now we’re trapped in here,” Keith muttered, realising his mistake.

“No, we’re not,” Thace told him. “There’s an exit through the main power conduit. It leads to the second deck. Go, now.”

“What?” Keith stared at him for a moment, before the realisation of what Thace was saying hit him. He shook his head stubbornly. “No, I’m not gonna leave you.”

“You must. I will shut down the system.” The larger man stared back at him, devoid of emotion. “Paladin, this is where my journey ends, but, as a member of Voltron, you have a bigger mission. You must understand that.”

Keith stared at the Blade operative sadly, before straightening his shoulders resolutely. “It was an honour to meet you.”

Both glanced at the doorway as the crystal exploded, allowing further sentries to storm the control room.

Thace nodded, then pushed Keith towards the exit. “Go! Now!”

Without hesitation, Keith jumped into the conduit just as the sentries swarmed Thace.

**************************************

The teludav powered down and an alarm was blaring loudly.

Slav was wringing all of his hands. “Oh, I hate it when I’m right. The gravity generator just lost power! Now, there’s no reality where we all get out alive!”

“Princess, the teludav is completely exposed!” Coran cried.

“Come on, Keith,” you muttered, desperately hoping he was on his way.

“What can we do?” Pidge asked, her voice filled with concern.

“We can’t do anything,” Shiro replied seriously. “If Keith doesn’t get Zarkon’s ship shut down we’re done for. It’s over.”

Just as Shiro spoke, the largest Galra warship started charging up its ion cannon, aiming it squarely at the Black Lion.

“We cannot wait any longer,” Allura told Shiro. “I’m powering the teludav now!”

The Red Lion growled, and you tensed. Both of you felt Keith’s desperation to escape. Clearly, he was in some trouble. Red headed towards the ship he was on, and you prayed that you would be able to reach him in time.

There was an explosion from Zarkon’s ship, and you panicked when you realised that Keith was nowhere to be seen. Without warning, Red turned towards Zarkon’s stricken vessel, and you spotted a tiny form floating adrift.

_Keith_.

“The system is down,” Kolivan’s voice came through the comms. “Uploading virus now.”

You noted with relief that the fleet lost power the instant the virus had been uploaded, giving you enough time to evade Zarkon’s clutches yet again.

“Thace did it.” Keith’s voice sounded sad as he drifted in space.

He heard a growl, and looked up to see the Red Lion heading towards him. He boarded and joined you in the cockpit. He tried to keep the grin from his face when you threw your arms around him, almost crushing him to you as you smashed your lips against his in a searing kiss.

“Thank God you’re all right, Keith,” you whispered against his mouth before kissing him again.

He squeezed you tight as he returned your embrace. “Told you I’d come back for a kiss.”

“And I told you I’d give you one.” You gave him another, and another, as you peppered his face with kisses from your relief that he was safe.

Red purred with satisfaction that both of its Paladins were once again together as they should be.

The two of you returned your attention to find that Zarkon’s ship was floating helplessly as it lost power following Keith and Thace’s act of sabotage. Allura activated the teludav, and the ship was transported to the far reaches of the galaxy via the wormhole that had been created.

Coran’s voice was strident. “Everyone, hang on! Here we go!”

He steered the Castleship through the wormhole, following Zarkon’s ship. “Hurry, Paladins! We must make it in before the wormhole closes!”  
  
“Coran, how’s Allura?” Shiro asked.

“She’s weak, but okay.” The Altean held his beloved princess in his arms as she lay weakly, nearly faint from the exertion of powering the teludav and creating the enormous wormhole.  
  
“You take care of her. We got it from here,” Shiro told him.

“We did it! I can’t believe we did it!” Pidge squealed excitedly.

“See, I told you we could do it,” Slav said smugly.

“It’s not over yet,” Shiro reminded him. “Everyone, form Voltron!”

The team transformed, and Voltron headed towards the Galra Emperor’s disabled ship.


	12. Fade to Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Paladins fight an epic battle against the most powerful enemy they’ve ever faced, with the fate of the universe resting on their shoulders. No pressure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is based on Series 2, Episode 13: “Blackout”

Voltron headed towards Zarkon’s stricken vessel. Shiro’s voice came over the comms as he gave his orders, the Lions consoles displaying the data from the Blade of Marmora agents as he spoke.

“We’ve gotta act fast. The power will only be down for twenty minutes. The Blade of Marmora’s schematics showed four targets we need to hit. The weapons systems, the engines, the bridge, and the shield generators. Now, let’s put an end to Zarkon, once and for all!”

“Yeah!” the team cried in unison.

“Form sword!” The giant blade appeared, and Voltron sliced through the hull of the ship, causing explosions to appear over the surface.

“Hit the engine systems!” Shiro ordered, so the team did exactly that. Voltron fired shot after shot at the ship, and continued to slice at various sections of the large vessel, disabling it as numerous explosions erupted throughout the ship’s hull. “Stay focused. We’ve neutralised the engines. Let’s target the bridge.”

Suddenly, a large purple orb of energy appeared in the centre of the ship.

“What is that?” Keith asked, his voice laced with concern.

The energy orb opened, and Voltron was hit by the beam of black lighting which shot from the centre, immobilising it. Everyone screamed as Voltron was trapped by the energy, the Quintessence being sucked from the Lions themselves.

**************************************

Allura’s voice was stricken. “Paladins! Shiro! Can you hear me?”

There was static over the comms, then Shiro’s voice was heard faintly. “Yes, Princess. We’re alive.”

“Oh, thank the Ancients!” Coran praised.

“Is Voltron operational?” Allura asked.

“It’s not working,” Hunk said.

You slowly opened your eyes, while Keith grunted weakly as Red remained unresponsive. “I can’t move my Lion,” he mumbled.

“You’ve been hit with some kind of witchcraft that draws the Quintessence out of you,” Coran told you. “You need to get out of there! Another blast like that and you may not survive!”

“Wait. What’s that?” Lance’s voice was apprehensive as he noticed a large black shape moving towards Voltron.

It loomed over Voltron, dwarfing the giant robot. Your mouth dropped open in horror as you realised that you were looking at an enormous robotic version of Zarkon himself.

“You must get moving,” Allura urged. “Remember your training. Remember all the battles you’ve been through.”

Shiro grunted as he tried in vain to move Voltron away from the oncoming threat. “Voltron’s still not responding. It’s Zarkon.”

Allura’s voice once again sounded over the comms. “Listen to me. You are true Paladins now. Connect with your Lions. Reach out to each other! Fight! This cannot end now! Fire!”

The Castleship fired at Zarkon’s ship, attempting to tear it apart. However, the giant robotic Zarkon reflected the beam back at the Castle, causing it to fall back, disabled as it was hit by the blast of energy. Allura’s agonised screams echoed in your ears as the Castle was engulfed by the return blast.

“Allura!” Shiro cried, as everyone stared, terrified.

Tears filled your eyes as you realised that this might be the end of Voltron.

Shiro’s voice came to you, sounding much stronger than any of you felt. “Everybody, listen. We have to fight. We have to channel all our energy. Visualise six becoming one. We have to focus everything we have into moving Voltron.”

Closing his eyes, Keith inhaled deeply, trying to envision Voltron moving away from the threat of the Galra Emperor. You did likewise, your hands on Keith’s shoulders as you tried to steady yourself.

“We are the last thing standing in the way of Zarkon’s total universal domination,” Shiro continued. “I’m not giving up that fight! Are you, Hunk?”

“No,” Hunk said, sounding more determined than you had ever heard him. The Yellow Lion roared in response.

“Pidge?”

“Never!” cried the Green Paladin, as her Lion roared its approval.

“Lance?”

You could hear the grin in your friend’s voice as Blue roared. “Let’s go down swinging.”

“Keith? Y/N?”

“I’m all in,” Keith said.

“Let’s do this,” you replied.

Red gave a satisfied roar as the two of you linked with your team-mates.

Shiro smiled grimly. “Then let’s get Voltron back in this battle!”

Voltron’s sword appeared just as Zarkon appeared directly in front of you, his own blade drawn. The Emperor’s voice echoed over your comms. “Now I will take back what is mine!”

Zarkon fired at Voltron, pushing it back, but all of you managed to strike back against him. Again and again, both blades struck against each other as both tried to gain the advantage. Voltron managed to fire a blast at the Emperor, pushing him back briefly.

“All right, let’s hit him with the big guns,” Shiro said. “Hunk, form shoulder cannon!”

The Yellow Paladin summoned Voltron’s cannon with his Bayard, and fired a blast towards Zarkon. The Emperor managed to defend himself from the blast with his shield.

“Look out!” Shiro cried as black lightning aimed towards Voltron from Zarkon’s ship.

Everyone screamed as Voltron was once again struck by the black energy.

**************************************

Communications had been cut off with the Castle following the hit from the black lightning.

Zarkon and Voltron were locked together, blades drawn, as each refused to give any ground to the other. Voltron tried to draw the Emperor away from the Castle.

“We’ve never faced anything this powerful before,” Pidge fretted.

“One way or another, this may be our last battle,” Shiro said. “We’ve got to give everything we have. Dig deep and fight!”

Zarkon’s voice rang out. “This is my time to reclaim the Black Lion. Nothing can stop me.”

You heard Shiro grunting. “He’s trying to control my Lion. I can feel him in my mind.”

“Fight it, Shiro!” Keith urged.

You added your encouragement to Keith’s. “Shiro, you can’t let Zarkon win! We need you!”

Everyone screamed as Shiro thrust the sword through the centre of the Zarkon robot’s chest. Just when it looked like victory would be yours, however, Zarkon struck Voltron with his Bayard, which had transformed into a giant whip. Flinging the whip viciously, Zarkon dismantled Voltron. Each Lion drifted slowly away from the others.

“You should have fled like your predecessors,” Zarkon mocked. “Now, the time of the Voltron Paladins is finished.”

“Shiro! Shiro!” Keith’s voice was filled with desperation. There was no response from the Black Paladin. “Something’s wrong with Shiro. Guys, we can’t let Zarkon get the Black Lion.”

The Black Lion was floating listlessly towards Zarkon’s ship, even as the other Lions hovered protectively around it. You braced yourself as Zarkon surged forward.

**************************************

Shiro heard the faint voices of the team through the ringing in his ears.

“Keep Zarkon away from the Black Lion!” Pidge yelled.

“Come on! We can’t give up!” you urged the others.

Hunk sounded weak. “I’m running out of strength, man.”

“Look out!” Lance cried as his Lion was hit by a blast from Zarkon.

The Lions were each being attacked with their own powers by the giant robot encasing the Emperor. The screams of his fellow Paladins shook Shiro out of his stupor.

His bond with the Black Lion increased as it sensed his desperation to help his fellow Paladins. With a cry, he merged his mind with that of the Lion. A new feature appeared – giant wings sprang from the back of the Lion as it appeared to fly directly _through_ Zarkon at lightning speed, disabling his robot.

“Whoa… What did you do?” Lance’s voice was filled with curiosity.

Shiro looked down at his hand in wonder. “I’ve got Zarkon’s Bayard.”

“You mean you’ve got _your_ Bayard,” Keith corrected him.

“We’ve only got a few minutes left before power returns to Zarkon’s ship,” Shiro told you. “Form Voltron!”

You’d never been so happy to hear that order in your life.

**************************************

Coran’s voice chirped over the comms as they were restored. “Hello, Paladins!”

“Yeah!” everyone cheered.

“Is everyone okay?” Shiro asked.

Before Coran could answer, another voice piped up. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry, guys!”

“Oh, great, Slav made it,” Lance muttered sarcastically.

“The power on Zarkon’s ship is returning!” Coran cried as the Galra fighter jets started to power up once more. “We need to get out of here! I’m going to get Allura!”

Voltron headed towards Zarkon. Shiro said, “This is our last chance! Let’s finish this!”

Everyone punched their controls forward simultaneously, causing Voltron to punch its giant sword once again through the chest of the robot containing the Galra Emperor.

In a final act of defiance, Zarkon grabbed the head of Voltron and channelled all of his power into it, causing lightning to crackle throughout each Lion. The pain was excruciating. You gritted your teeth, not wanting to give the Emperor the satisfaction of hearing you scream.

Just as all hope seemed lost, however, Voltron’s sword caught ablaze. It punched through Zarkon’s armour, ripping it apart. The team cried out together as they channelled all of their energy into destroying the Emperor. That final surge caused the Lions to rip apart, drifting away from each other once more.

Lance was the first to recover with a grunt. “Did we do it?”

“Is it over?” Hunk asked.

“I have Allura and Kolivan,” Coran said. “We need to go!”

The Paladins pointed their Lions back to the Castleship. Something caught your eye and you looked out of Red’s window to see the Black Lion drifting motionless. “Keith, look!”

Keith’s gaze followed to where you were pointing, and he gasped in dismay. “Shiro!”

Pidge noticed as well. “We need to tow him back onto the ship!”

She flew the Green Lion towards Shiro, as did Keith, and both of them grabbed the stricken Lion with grappling hooks and headed back towards the Castle.

“Princess, we’re all onboard,” Pidge informed Allura once the Lions had safely returned to their hangars.

With a nod, the princess opened a wormhole and steered the Castleship to safety.

**************************************

You and Keith raced towards the Black Lion, with the others hot on your heels.

“Shiro! Shiro!” Keith panted as he ran into the cockpit.

All of you crowded around the pilot’s seat, staring in disbelief at the empty chair in front of you. The Black Bayard was still locked in the console, but there was no sign of the Black Paladin anywhere.

“He’s gone,” Lance whispered.

Everyone continued to stare in shock at the place where your team leader should have been.


End file.
